“I came here with a plan, probably to stay longer, but… in soccer things change so quick.” Who would have thought that exactly a year after joining the Washington Spirit from FC Barcelona Femení last summer, Jonatan Giraldez would be saying those words? News flash: in case you missed it, the Spanish tactician has left the NWSL to join French side OL Lyon. ‘Frustrated‘ best describes the mood of devoted Spirit fans. But they’re not alone—joining the chorus of discontent is none other than Megan Rapinoe, who has a question for the club’s owner Michele Kang.

Think of it this way: the American businesswoman also owns OL Lyon, the very club Jonatan Giráldez has now joined. Doesn’t that raise a potential competing interest issue? This is exactly what’s troubling Rapinoe. The USWNT icon was left “fascinated” by the move and didn’t hesitate to pose a subtle question to the London City Lionesses owner.

“If I’m the Washington Spirit, am I mad?” began Rapinoe on the latest episode of A Touch More podcast, which she co-hosts alongside her significant other and WNBA icon Sue Bird. “I am interested in how Michelle navigates the conflict of interest,” the 2x World Cup champion curiously asked, even though both teams are completely based in different regions of the world.

Yet, Pinoe insisted that the two teams owned by Kang are eventually “competing for the same pool of players and the same pool of coaches.” This is exactly what concerns the former OL Reign (Renamed Seattle Reign) forward. “How is Michelle making her decisions on what coaches go where and what players go?” asked Megan.

Intrigue takes a double fold for the former USA forward while highlighting that it was just a couple of months ago that Spirit forward Trinity Rodman expressed her desire to play in Europe—a place where there is no salary cap. Coincidentally, Pinoe once urged Michele Kang to do anything in her power just to retain Trinity Rodman in NWSL.

The multi-women’s soccer club owner subtly responded that she indeed would do everything to keep the 22-year-old, but still urged her to leave for Europe at some point in her career. However, now Megan Rapinoe is alleging that Kang sending Giraldez to one of her other owned teams is a subtle indication that she has some sort of arrangement with Rodman as the billionaire can pay any price.

“This was really interesting to me, having different teams in different leagues, where you can kind of cross-resource and reference your teams,” added the 2019 Ballon d’Or Féminin winner, who herself has enjoyed a stint at OL Lyoness, lifting a French league title as well as a domestic cup. Then again, if you think the rant ended here, there’s more!

Megan Rapinoe is keeping an eye on Michele Kang!

Notably, after Jonatan’s shocking news, Washington Spirit rather promoted his assistant coach Adrián González to his managerial position. In fact, Michele Kang had even expressed her utmost confidence in the newly promoted tactician to do Jonatan’s job. Though Megan Rapinoe feels the same, she still isn’t settled by the sudden departure.

“It’s really disruptive to have a coach leave the team in the middle of the season. So I’m just kind of like ‘Huh, I want to watch this space,'” said the 3x NWSL Shield winner. Well, part of this cautious nature stems from how Rapinoe felt when Michele Kang owned Lyon and the French club also owned the Seattle Reign—yet it was the American businesswoman making decisions on Lyon’s behalf.

This made Rapinoe’s fiance Sue Bird quite curious, who questioned whether the 66-year-old businesswoman is again doing the same, which the former Chicago Red Stars didn’t deny. “From what I know about Michele Kang, I think she’s making the decisions. I don’t know but it’s an interesting setup,” Megan said, calling soccer the ‘Wild Wild West’ where there aren’t any kind of rules surrounding the situation.

Quite subjective and sensitive, but we would like to know your thoughts on the same in the comments below.