Multi-club ownership group Crux Football adds Abby Wambach, former players to investor collective

As investment pours into women’s soccer, Crux Sports is doubling down on bringing the game’s most influential stakeholders who have been left out of the boardroom back to the table.

The women-focused multi-club ownership group announced Tuesday the launch of its Player Investor Collective, an initiative designed to give former women’s footballers and athletes across sports the opportunity to become investors and owners in European women’s soccer clubs. Among the first athlete investors are former U.S. women’s national team stars Julie Foudy, Abby Wambach and Leslie Osborne, all of whom have previously been involved in ownership or investment initiatives across women’s sports.

The collective will provide athletes with long-term investment opportunities and ownership stakes across Crux’s growing portfolio of clubs, which currently includes French side Montpellier HSC Féminines and Swedish club FC Rosengård. The company is also actively pursuing additional acquisitions in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe.

For Crux founder and CEO Bex Smith, the initiative is as much about changing the power structure of women’s soccer as it is about raising capital. “I see that the people who built the sport seem to be fairly excluded from sitting on cap tables, being in ownership rooms and making decisions in the sport they helped create,” Smith told The Athletic.

Rather than targeting Europe’s biggest clubs, Crux has focused its investments on teams outside the continent’s elite tier.

“We don’t necessarily need more investment in Lyon, Arsenal or Barcelona,” Smith explained. “What we need are better teams throughout the leagues. We need more competitive environments, more stories for broadcasters to tell and more opportunities for players to develop.”

The approach reflects Crux’s broader vision for women’s soccer. Founded by Smith, a former New Zealand international and FIFA executive, Crux was created around the belief that women’s clubs need dedicated ownership structures rather than remaining secondary priorities within men’s organizations.

“The question isn’t whether women’s football will grow,” Smith said. “It’s really about building the right structure so that they can grow in the best way possible, and being stuck in men’s clubs is just not the right structure for them now in the growth trajectory.”

The announcement comes at a time when investment in women’s soccer is accelerating globally. Billionaires, private equity firms and celebrity-backed groups have increasingly entered the space, driving up valuations across leagues in North America and Europe. Yet Smith argues that many of the women who spent decades building the sport often lack access to the same ownership opportunities available to male athletes.

“We wanted to make ownership accessible,” Smith said. In contrast to retired male stars, who often accumulate significant wealth during their playing careers, many established women’s players retire from professional life without earning comparable salaries. “Not everyone can come in with tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. There should be pathways for athletes to participate in building the future of the sport,” she explained.

The collective will not function as a passive investment vehicle. Crux plans to establish a player council that will help advise the company on decisions ranging from player development to education programs and broader strategic initiatives.

Since acquiring Montpellier and Rosengård, Crux has invested heavily in the infrastructure surrounding the teams. The ownership group has built dedicated business operations focused exclusively on the women’s sides, hired new executives, expanded marketing and commercial departments, launched women’s-specific social media channels and conducted extensive fan research.

On the sporting side, the company has introduced enhanced nutrition programs, expanded player development resources and implemented a data-driven approach to performance analysis. The strategy is built around what Smith calls a “player-first” model. “We want players to know that when they come to us, they’re going to get better,” she said.

“Not just as footballers, but as people.” That includes language education, career transition support and professional development programs designed to prepare players for life after soccer. Crux hopes those investments can help create a sustainable pipeline of talent while simultaneously increasing the long-term value of its clubs. The company ultimately wants its model to become a blueprint others follow.

“We want more investment to come into women’s football,” Smith said. “We want more people to copy us. The leagues need to get better, and the whole ecosystem needs to improve.”

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

US Women’s national team, Sports Business, Women’s Soccer

2026 The Athletic Media Company