Angel City FC: Eni Aluko on working for the Los Angeles franchise

Since moving to Los Angeles as sporting director of Angel City FC, Eni Aluko says Natalie Portman is his boss.

Portman is part of a majority female ownership group boasting a plethora of A-list investors who have founded the new National Women's Soccer League side, with the club set to make their debut in the competition this month.

Tennis icon Serena Williams, Winter Olympic gold medallist Lindsey Vonn, actresses Eva Longoria and Jennifer Garner, TV host James Corden and a number of entrepreneurs are some of the high-profile backers.

The former England forward proved a hit with the all-star panel after she was asked to take on the role of sporting director.

I remember thinking, "don't look at them, look at you notes and the presentation and try to deliver as best you can." And they loved it, Aluko says.

When the opportunity arose to join the franchise in California, Aluko was working as the director for women's football at the time, though it was not a straightforward decision.

She explains that the whole point of retiring and moving back home was to spend more time with my family and friends.

It was more of a case of if I didn't do this, don't take this unique opportunity to build a club from scratch, I'm probably never going to get that again.

She was struck by the names already entwined in the Angel City project and that is something that has caught the imagination of the Los Angeles locals.

Aluko remembers meeting Mia Hamm in Los Angeles for the first time.

I watched Julie Foudy win the World Cup, and now they are my colleagues.

Natalie Portman is my supervisor. It is a privilege to be given the responsibility to try to build something that is the idea of all these amazing people, and I have met her several times, spoken to her kids about football and what training session we are doing.

One of the first things Aluko did was to find a coach, and after narrowing down a list of applicants she chose English boss Freya Coombe.

Aluko says she is keen on gender balance and that Angel City is very intentional about female leadership, female ownership, and female empowerment.

She is a competent coach, but her gender was not the most important requirement.

We are careful not to patronise ourselves. If you are a competent candidate, you can go against anyone. We have to back ourselves that we are confident enough to compete and not create comfort zones.

When you get into the world of football, you don't have control over who you are up against.

'Now we want to see action on the pitch'

Aluko explains her role as sitting between the board and the football side of the club, setting the tactical and technical strategies, as well as looking after recruitment and managing the budget of the team.

Aluko says there is a separation between the coach and him.

There is a lot of stuff that coaches and managers did. There is a separation of responsibilities between the coaches and the administrative work.

While the coach concentrates on winning a football match, Aluko has to think about the long-term.

If a coach leaves within a year, what happens to the team?

It is too risky to just be specific for one coach.

The sporting director knows that it may take time for Angel City to find their feet in the NWSL, despite the club's owners and competitive squad she has put together.

She says that they have to be careful to have a balance between being ambitious and understanding how difficult it is to win straight away.

Can we be the most successful expansion team in the NWSL?

There has been a lot of talk and we want to see the action on the field. We want to see goals, we want to see the team gelling together, we want to see great assists. That is the reason we are doing this.