Two-time Ballon d'Or winner Putellas joins London City Lionesses, drawing global fans to a small town

Commuters outside London Bromley South station had no idea that a global superstar was playing football in their “backyard.” Nobody knew who two-time Ballon d'Or winner and World Cup champion Alexia Putellas was. One local resident exclaimed: “I can’t believe she is playing here! But not for Bromley, right?”

Indeed, Putellas does not play for Bromley, the English Football League men's third-tier club, although the two teams share the same 5,500-capacity stadium.

Walking along the high street of this southeast London town, located 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the city center, you would not know that London City Lionesses would host Manchester United at the sold-out Copperjax Community Stadium on Friday night to begin their 2026-2027 Women's Super League (WSL) campaign. There are no advertisements visible at the venue.

But after London City Lionesses announced this summer that Putellas would join the club following her departure from Barcelona, fans from around the world began planning trips to the little-known town. Supporters can enter the stadium via a public footpath, passing a sixth-form college, a Nuffield Health center and a paddock with several spotted ponies on the grass.

Thirty-year-old Nisha Takhar flew from Vancouver, Canada, to London on Friday morning and went straight to an Adidas store to buy a Spain shirt with “Alexia” printed on it. “I am a huge fan of hers. I have loved watching her for a long time, and I never had the chance to see her play for Barcelona,” she told The Athletic.

Standing by the touchline just a few meters from her idol, Takhar met other passionate Putellas fans, all wearing Spain's No. 11 shirt. Thirty-one-year-old Monika Zimmermanova is from Slovakia, 28-year-old Agnes Kyjovska is from the Czech Republic, and 46-year-old Urszula Albrecht is from Poland. Forty-three-year-old Mariana Tachava is a Barcelona fan from the United States who had always wanted to come to London to watch women's football, and Putellas' arrival prompted her to make the trip.

Similarly, Ria McRobbie had previously followed Manchester City, but became interested in the London City Lionesses project. Putellas' arrival brought her from Aberdeen, 550 miles away.