Natalie Portman has long been an advocate for women. Her now-viral words at the 2018 Golden Globes (“Here are the all-male nominees“) brought to light the lack of diversity in Hollywood and at the 2020 Oscars, her Dior gown was embroidered with the names of female directors who weren’t nominated in the Best Director category.
Now the actress has added a new line to her résumé: sports team owner.
On July 21, it was announced that Portman had secured the rights to bring a National Women’s Soccer League team to Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles Times, other co-owners include fellow actors Jennifer Garner, Eva Longoria, Jessica Chastain, and Uzo Aduba; soccer stars Abby Wambach, Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Joy Fawcett, Rachel Buehler, and Tisha Venturini-Hoch; and Reddit cofounder and Mr. Serena Williams, Alexis Ohanian.
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“We wanted to make sure that we brought in incredible partners who were from the soccer world, who are leaders in sport, in tech and business and entertainment because that’s really so much what our city is about. Each of us has our special ability to bring to the team,” Portman, who has apparently been working on the project since last year’s World Cup, said. “It just seems like it was ideal to bring [women’s] soccer to L.A. because we have such passionate fans here, such robust youth soccer. It’s just an incredible kind of culture shift if we can bring more attention and light and celebration of these incredible athletes.”
Portman and fellow team owners took to social media to share their excitement over the news:
The new team, tentatively named Angel City, hope to have a permanent name and venue by the end of the year and will begin playing in 2022 at the Olympics and the Women’s World Cup.
Go girls!
