“The excitement is always bigger than the fear,” says Jana Fernández as she tries to explain a summer of upheaval when she left Spain and Barcelona to move the UK and London City Lionesses.
“I didn’t know it was going to be this soon, but I knew I was going to come here. I’m someone who wants to discover new things. I’m so curious about life and new cultures. It’s not about just a club, it’s about being part of a community, a style. I just arrived like: ‘Give it to me, I’m ready for it.’”
Fernández, now 23, joined Barcelona aged 12. She expected to stay at the club for a bit longer. However, the salary limit enforced by La Liga caused a financial crisis for the Barcelona men’s side and affected the whole club. An exodus of summer transfers from the women’s squad left them starting the campaign with 17 registered first-team players. Fernández was one of six high-profile players uprooted.
“I’m the person and player I am today because of Barcelona,” she says. “It’s hard to talk about because fans got a bit upset with me. I feel sorry about it, but it wasn’t what I wanted.
“People have to know it wasn’t players’ decisions; it was something else. Hopefully, at some point, they will understand, because I love Barcelona. I don’t want anyone to think I wanted to leave. It wasn’t like that; it was something bigger than us and people’s knowledge of the situation.
“But it happened, and you have to accept things. I’m happy here, but it was a difficult time for everybody.”
ISome small familiarities have remained. She has family in the area, but there is also a Barça-to-London expat community. Kiera Walsh, Lucy Bronze, Laia Codina and Mariona Caldentey have made the move and María Pérez, another Barcelona youth graduate, joined the Lionesses in 2024.
“We have a group chat, we go out for dinners, it’s really nice,” Fernández says. “We were saying we should go to some gigs or musicals soon. Having a group of girls you knew there and having them here, speaking your own language with them, it makes it feel more like home. I miss people, I miss my family, but I am well surrounded here.”
She is passionate about musicals, dancing and singing – she chose football over jazz at aged seven – and that does not come as a surprise from someone who radiates energy. She speaks endearingly about Barcelona, but her excitement and curiosity about her new city is genuine. “I love to walk around,” she says. “The other day I was near Hyde Park and I love that area. Being in nature makes me smile.”
Despite reminders of home and the eagerness to make a second one, there are ways in which the working environment could not be more different. From La Masia’s playing style and homegrown roots, Fernández arrived as one of 17 signings at London City during a spending spree funded by the owner, Michele Kang, after promotion from the Championship. After seasons spent largely second to Ona Batlle at right-back for Barcelona and Spain, she has played in every Women’s Super League game for her new club.
The Lionesses have started well, winning five of their nine gamesand followed up a statement 4-2 win over Tottenham by beating Aston Villa last Sunday. “Seventeen new players is crazy to think about for any other club,” Fernández says. “Everybody comes from a different place, different cultures and languages. That’s hard as a new team.”
She has won two Champions League titles, but she is still in childlike awe of the players with whom she has shared a dressing room. She fizzes off the names of Alexia Putellas from Barcelona, Saki Kumagai, Daniëlle van de Donk and Nikita Parris at London City, before stopping for fear of forgetting someone.
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“That’s the beautiful thing about football; you can meet new people and everyone can make each other better,” she says. “That’s the special thing about London City at the moment.”
What did she learn at La Masia, home of one of the most distinctive footballing cultures in the world? “They showed me the good values you have to be a good player, but also a good example for the next generations. We can show them what a good athlete can be off the pitch as well as on it. That’s the responsibility we have as players. I’m trying to bring that everywhere I go.”
She has set up a coaching campus company, running for a week every year, to replicate the feeling of youth camps she loved at the beginning of her journey. She recalls waiting for the start of summer to ask her parents to go, to meet new friends, see new places.
They are always by a beach, she says, and always about learning football in a fun, social environment. It is easy to get the feeling that, even with the burdens of professionalism, she sees football as one long childhood summer.
Football, however, is a professional business. Fernández denies there is a large gap between London City and the upper echelons of the league and says that having Kang in charge of the club is a boost. “She’s someone so passionate about women’s football and making it grow, which is the same for us players.
“Being the only independent women’s club [in the WSL]it’s amazing. It feels like we are really professional players and I really like that about this league. The teams are physically stronger, they demand more. It’s requiring something different from my game.
“If I’m dreaming, and I’m ambitious, we want to be in the Champions League spots. We’re going to go for everything.”
