For Eni Aluko, taking the easy option has never been part of the attraction.
Having grown up on a council estate in Birmingham after migrating with her family from Nigeria, she has gone on to became a trailblazer for women’s football, representing England 102 times across five major tournaments, as well as Team GB at the 2012 Olympics, during a standout playing career featuring spells at top clubs including Chelsea and Juventus. In addition, Aluko did all this alongside training and practicing as a lawyer, whilst also making regular appearances on the media circuit.
But she has now arguably taken on her toughest challenge yet.
The former striker, 35, has become accustomed to leading the way in many aspects of her life to date, and her latest role as the first sporting director of the exciting, newly-formed women’s football franchise Angel City is no different.
Based in Los Angeles, the female-led National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) expansion team boasts a who’s who of famous names driving it forward, from founder Hollywood superstar Natalie Portman, to tennis icons Serena Williams and Billie Jean King, actress Eva Longoria, singer Becky G and TV host James Corden, as well as an abundance of U.S women’s football legends including Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy.
The project is shaking up the women’s soccer scene in a bid to tackle gender inequality - and they’ve chosen Aluko to build their team… from scratch.
“It’s been super busy, relentless really,” remarks Aluko, now a year into her post stateside. “Relentless, but it’s fun.”
In that time Aluko confesses to having had “sleepless nights” as she was handed a blank canvas on which to start from, since appointing a manager, Freya Coombe, and signing a whole roster of players to the team, including star striker, USWNT legend Christen Press.
So far it’s going well, with Angel City winning three of their opening five games in the NWSL season. But Aluko will be the first to admit it’s not all been as plain sailing.
“Up until about March it was relentless,” she says. “In terms of recruitment, contracts, negotiations, transfer deadlines, presenting to the board, bringing in staff, talking to Japan for days on end trying to get transfer deals over the line, talking to people all over the country, agents, presentations for players, dealing with the league in the U.S which has loads of different rules.”
Aluko had already gained similar experience in her previous role as sporting director at Aston Villa following her retirement from playing, though concedes it was a very different set up.
“At Villa it was different as it was a pre-existing team that had just been promoted and it was about staying in the league. But the whole time I was at Villa I was thinking how good it would be to work with players who were the best in the world.
“Villa just weren’t at that point, but it gave me a lot of experience and understanding around building a strategy to help stay up, survival. So when the Angel City opportunity came up, LA, huge names involved, I thought this is the time and opportunity to build the global team I wanted and dreamed of.”
Despite her admission that a successful playing career does not necessarily make you a good sporting director, on paper at least, Aluko’s legal background combined with her experiences in football and a UEFA masters degree make her an ideal candidate for such a role.
“I’ve played with those players, or against them, so from a recruitment standpoint it really does help to be able to analyse those abilities, and also through my punditry work I’ve analysed football at the highest level so again when you’re recruiting you’re watching loads of players, your eye just becomes more trained.”
But during our chat it’s clear that the real motivation for someone who has been a huge influence in the growth of women’s football already, is taking it to the next level and beyond. “I’ve always been someone who looks at the status quo and thought I can be part of changing that.” Aluko opened up on how she considered quitting football to become a full-time lawyer after the 2012 Olympics “because I just didn’t see any pathway to doing what I wanted to do and was always struggling for money”. That year in London proved to be the catalyst for women’s football in the UK to start heading towards fully professional status.
Yet even with women’s football now the most popular and lucrative it’s ever been, Aluko wouldn’t swap the journey she has already been on. “I feel like I’ve been part of that sea change to where the game is now. And ultimately even though I’m not playing on the pitch I’m still part of the new women’s football, I’m shaping it and I feel really lucky to be apart of that too.”
With Barcelona recently recording attendances of over 90,000 in two fixtures, the sky seems to be the limit for the women’s game. But where does Aluko see it going from here?
“I think the next 10 years we’re going to see people who are dedicated women’s football fans paying their money to come and watch us every week. Angel City, when we see the amount of people coming every week, we’re starting at 15,000 (season ticket holders), that’s the future. Whereas before it was ‘let’s just get 2,000 through the door.’”
Aluko cites the need for “consistency” in attendance figures, as well as converting widespread interest in the major tournaments into domestic football. “That’s always been the challenge.”
The constant comparisons with the men’s game don’t always help, but the increased investment from the Premier League ’s major clubs has contributed to a power shift, with Europe now holding sway over the previously dominant U.S franchises - something which, whilst welcome, Aluko accepts has made her job more difficult.
“Europe has taken over for sure, and the level of competition in the Champions League. It’s really hard as budgets are much much bigger. In America there’s a salary cap, so even if you’re in LA with 15,000 season ticket holders and more revenue, it doesn’t actually matter, as everyone has the same money.
“Whereas in Europe, there’s a soft salary cap relevant to X amount of your turnover. We’re competing with that and it is really difficult because I can speak with players about LA, about Angel City, but if that player has the option to stay in Europe and be paid double what I’m offering then of course they’re going to stay in Europe. So it’s not a given just because it’s LA, because it’s Hollywood that players are going to come. The project, offer and the intention has to be right, you have to try and fend off all those other clubs in Europe who are trying to get players, so it’s really challenging, and I’ve lost a lot of deals over that as well.”
That said, Aluko feels the greater involvement from Europe’s biggest clubs can only be a good thing. “I think it’s naive to think an affiliation with the men’s game doesn’t help the women’s game, it does. They’re huge brands.”
But asked what she would like to see change in perceptions of the women’s game, Aluko insists it’s time to “take gender out of the conversation”.
“I think people are recognising Barcelona are a top class football team, forget gender, they’re just a top class football team and I want to watch them play. Is it great football, yes or no? Yes, ok I’ll pay my ticket to go and watch.
“I think we get stuck in this gender conversation and actually it doesn’t really mean much, because if you go to a tennis match, if I pay my ticket to Wimbledon, I can go to centre court and watch Roger Federer and Serena Williams in the same day. Does it matter that they’re different sex? No, it’s great tennis. So that’s where I think we need to get to with women’s football - it’s a different sport - well, same game, I appreciate it in a different way, but it’s just great football and great players. In the same way I’ll go and pay for a ticket to watch Liverpool vs Man City. I don’t support either team but I want to go and watch the game because they’re great teams.”
Tennis continues to set the standard in terms of gender balance, and Aluko remains doubtful a female football player could ever, at least for now, achieve the same notoriety as the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, who signed for Juventus the day after her own transfer to the Serie A club. Aluko has joked previously about how she mistakenly thought the cameras waiting at Turin airport were for her grand arrival, rather than the Portuguese five-time Ballon d’Or winner - yet whilst she doesn’t expect that to alter anytime soon, she feels there has been huge progress.
“I do think that women’s football just naturally because it’s much younger than the men’s game there will always be a level of living in the shadow. As long as you have a Ronaldo, Messi, Mbappe, Haaland, then you’re never really going to get a women’s player at that level, because you’re always going to have a huge fan base who want to see what those guys are doing. I do think though that the profile of the women’s players now has gone up substantially. Megan Rapinoe for example, everyone around the world knows who she is, they may not know which club she plays for, but they know her. I think that will happen more and more.”
Having the aforementioned Williams on board at Angel City could go some way to helping address that, and Aluko explained how the tennis star’s involvement was a big factor in convincing her to join the crusade.
“It really does help to be apart of a club of super successful people who are all believing in what you’re doing and this project. I’m able to share my ideas with them and they’re like ‘listen you know more about football than we do’, so you’re kind of like the superior mind in the room at that point, it’s a weird dynamic really, they’re kind of waiting for me to tell them. It’s been an amazing experience, I’ve learnt so much in such a short space of time.”
Aluko has set out a three-year strategy for Angel City, to first become the best expansion team, to then achieving a play-off place by the end of season two, before ultimately aiming to win a championship by their third year. “But we may accelerate that,” she says confidently. “We’ve got some really good players in our team.”
Attracting the best has not been the only criteria, though, as building a team that mirrors their LA fanbase is at the forefront of Aluko’s thinking. “I’m very uncompromising about sourcing talent from different parts of the world that means that when our fans turn up from a diverse community like LA, they’re going ‘oh my god that girl is Mexican, or from Jamaica, or that girl’s American.’ That’s important. If you can’t relate to the team you support it’s really hard.”
Angel City have also taken the unique stance of not trading out their players with Aluko keen to stress the importance of culture at her new club. “For me it doesn’t make sense in terms of trying to build a group of people together if they have this constant threat of feeling they’re going to get traded if they play badly.”
Despite her hectic schedule, she still gets down to watch training two to three times a week and has already started laying out plans for next season now that the European transfer window has opened. Her own experiences no doubt serve as a useful sounding board for Angel City’s current players, yet while she considers herself a trailblazer, she is less inclined to label herself as a role model.
“I think that’s up to other people to say. I’ve had to change my mindset on that a little bit, it’s not about people pleasing for me or being that person that’s like ‘follow me’, it’s more about inspiring people to do well. I’m not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, I give my best, I’m confident and passionate in what I do, but I think it’s really tricky. If I say something which someone thinks is controversial, which sometimes I’ve had to do, people might say ‘well I don’t agree with that so they’re not my role model anymore.’ Everybody has to find their own path, if you’re inspired I want people to be inspired to do what’s best for them.”
Aluko’s path has led her to the heart of a bright future at Angel City as she continues to be the first through the door with a project intent on changing the face of women’s football, which after a promising start only looks to be heading in one direction.
“Everything is always better when you’re winning,” she admits. “It’s been a long journey but I’m really proud of what’s been built so far. New challenges, things that have never been done before, it really motivates me. Other people would look and say that’s not for me, why would I take a blank canvas and start from scratch? I find it really exciting and I think it takes a lot of courage and foresight to be able to do that. It puts me in uncomfortable situations but equally I like to be in those situations because it pushes me towards more of what I want to do. It allows me to shape the world I want to see in football.”
