Top 10 football club owners with multiple teams across Europe

Here's a breakdown of the billionaire owners of football clubs across Europe, as they spend their riches on owning multiple teams.

Billionaires having ownership of football clubs has been a matter of prestige and adds to their brand value. While others look to add a global asset to their investment portfolio and sell them at a record profit at a later stage. These days, even influential athletes, musicians and actors have staked their claim in the business of football. Recognised global star such as LeBron James, who has stakes in Liverpool and AC Milan. Rapper Drake and Michael B Jordan, who recently became a shareholder in AFC Bournemouth. We look at owners of some of the few such football clubs below:

10. Bill Foley, FC Bournemouth & Lorient

The latest member of the multiple football club owners is a Texas-based business has acquired a stake in FC Bournemouth back in December 2022 and has now gone on to claim an ownership stake in French club Lorient, in Ligue 1, in January 2023. Foley is believed to be worth around $1 billion, and already owns the NHL franchise Vegas Golden Knights, as well as the chairman of one of the United States' biggest insurance companies.

He's been a keen observer and follower of the slew of American investments which has poured into the European Football scene. Particularly in the last few years and is keen to stake his claim in the multi-club football model franchise. Inspired by the likes of City Football Group and Red Bull Football. Foley is currently an owner in the NHL, i.e, the newly awarded expansion franchise Vegas Golden Knights, in Vegas, bought under Black Knight Sports & Entertainment, his sports investment arm.

9. Nassef Sawaris & Wes Edens: Aston Villa & Vitoria Sport Clube

Aston Villa owners Nassef Sawaris and Wes Edens boast a combined net wealth of $12.4 billion. The two billionaires have put in a lot of their personal wealth to ensure that Aston Villa can return back to their glory days, and return to European glory. They've risen through the Championships to the Premier League under manager Dean Smith and marquee player Jack Grealish. Following Grealish's sale to Manchester City in 2021, the owners funded a 150 million transfer summer.

They've recently ended up buying a 46% stake in Portuguese club Vitoria, as announced on February 12th, of this year and hoping to find success there as well. Nassef Sawiris is an investor and a scion of Egypt's wealthiest family. He also owns a 6% share in the German Sportswear giants Adidas. Wes Edens is also an experienced investor and founder of New Fortress Energy. Where he's made his wealth and is a co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, an NBA franchise.

8. Evangelos Marinakis: Nottingham Forest and Olympiakos

The Greek shipping businessman has an approximate net worth of $700 million and is also a very involved and hands-on owner in running his Football Clubs, Nottingham Forest, who're back in the Premier League this season after a long hiatus and Greek giants, Olympiacos FC. He's a movie mogul, and shipowner and set up his company Capital Maritime & Trading Corp. He still acts as chairman at the company, through which he's acquired his wealth. He's also a lyricist and songwriter and resides in his residence in Athens and London respectively. His club in England has gone on to sign 15 players in 17 days as per summer reports and that has been reflected in the result results with Forest drawing 1-1 against Manchester City recently and lie 13th in the Premier League table. 

7. Gino Pozzo: Watford & Udinese

Gino Pozzo's Udinese Football Club, now playing in the second tier of English top-flight football, has been notorious for sacking their managers every season—a record of 12 new managers in 10 seasons. With an approximate wealth of $115 million, Gino Pozzo has an American education under his belt with a bachelor's degree from Harvard University. He was born and raised in Italy, where, alongside a woodcarving business and an appliance store, his parents purchased ownership in a local football club called Udinese in Udine, Italy. His Italian club under the stewardship of Andrea Sottil had a great start to the season, and is currently in the 9th position in the Italian league table, and has been famous for bringing International players across South America to the Italian and English shores, through his clubs.

6. Daniel Křetínský: West Ham and Sparta Prague

Daniel Křetínský has recently come to the fore, having taken up a 27% stake in West Ham for approximately £200m and ended up as the second largest shareholder in the West Ham board, with the majority shareholders David Gold and David Sullivan still being the majority partners. The Czech businessman carries a net worth of approx. $5 Billion and is also the owner of the Czech football club AC Sparta Prague and has been influential in bringing in Czech-based players such as Vladimir Coufal, Tomas Soucek and Alex Kral to West Ham. He's also a lawyer by trade and is the CEO and majority owner of EPH, the largest energy company in central Europe. His influence in the UK runs beyond football, as he has multiple ownership stakes in various businesses such as 15%share in the Royal Mail and around 10% in Sainsbury's through his investment company Vesa Equity Investment.

5. David Blitzer, Bolt Football Holdings: Crystal Palace and Augsburg

David Blitzer is a former executive of the investment management Blackstone Group, based in New York. He has an approximate net wealth of nearly $1.5 billion, and he's a multi-sport investment honcho, with stakes in multiple sports franchises, including the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers, the NHL's New Jersey Devils, the Premier League's Crystal Palace and now the MLB's Cleveland Guardians. Through his company Bolt Football Holdings, he has minority ownership stakes in clubs across Europe such as through Bolt Football Holdings. Namely, the following clubs are part of his portfolio including Crystal Palace FC, German club FC Augsburg, Dutch club ADO Den Haag, and Belgian club Waasland-Beveren. He was named amongst the interested parties to acquire the ownership of Chelsea, back in May 2022, which ended up in Todd Boehly's favour, in the end.

4. Jerry Cardinale, RedBird Capital: AC Milan and Toulouse

Jerry Cardinale is an investor and owner of football clubs in Italy and France such as AC Milan and Toulouse. Cardinale is a prominent American investor and entrepreneur, known for his investments in sports franchises. He is also the founder and managing partner of RedBird Capital, a New York-based investment firm with connections to superstars such as LeBron James and Drake, who both own stakes in AC Milan, in August 2022. Cardinale’s RedBird Capital has recently taken ownership, over two European football clubs, AC Milan in Italy and Toulouse in France.

It is a interesting development, being the first ever American investor to have simultaneously taken an full ownership of two European football clubs. He's a former Goldman Sachs executive and banker with nearly 25 years of experience, in Sports Investments, having set up his organization RedBird, with an initial SPAC investment of $500 million, back in 2020. He has alongside him, leadership advisor such as Oakland Athletics Vice-President Billy Beane, of Moneyball fame. RedBird Capital is also a shareholder of FSG(Fenway Sports Group) which is the current owner of Liverpool FC and owns a 10% stake in John Henry's company. His net worth is approximately $200 million USD.

3. Nasser Al-Khelaifi, Qatar Sports Investment - PSG and FC Braga

Nasser Al-Khelaifi is the CEO and chairman of French giants Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and the French Ligue 1 side. He's also the chief executive of the Doha-based beIN Media Group. He's a Qatari royal and a wealthy businessman and boasts a net worth of $8 billion. Al-Khelaifi's also recently gone on to acquire ownership of Portuguese club FC Braga, where his company QSI, bought a 21.7% stake in the football club. Al-Khelaifi's known to be extremely influential, in European Football, ever since his takeover of Paris Saint Germain, back in 2011, and has brought significant investments into the French side, boasting the likes of Neymar, Mbappe and Lionel Messi.

2. Dietrich Mateschitz, Red Bull Group: RB Leipzig & RB Salzburg

The former co-founder of the Red Bull energy drink empire boasted a net worth of $20 billion and was recognised globally for creating one of the most successful brands in global drinks history. He passed away recently, in October 20222, at the age of 78. But has left behind an impressive legacy, which most notably includes the ownership of the Red Bull football clubs based in Austria and Germany respectively, namely RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg. He was the richest man in Austria, prior to his death. As well as a member of the Forbes billionaire list of 100 richest people in the world. He's been succeeded by his son, Mark Mateschitz who took over the reins from his father as chairman of the Red Bull group, following his death.

1, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, City Football Group, Abu Dhabi United Group: Manchester City FC and FC Girona

The chairman of City Football Group, also known as Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is worth around $40 billion. Sheikh Mansour is the Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE, and also the owner and founder of the City Football Group. Which is the holding company, of Manchester City Football Club.

Ever since his takeover of the club, back in 2008, for £210m, he's gone to fund an immense amount of success in England where Man City have gone to become one of the top teams in the Premier League. Winning six Premier League trophies and have also enjoyed great success in the FA Cup(2x) and Carabao Cup(3x). Apart from his success with Manchester City, he also bought up another club in 2017 called Girona, which is in Spain's LaLiga. With their addition, the City Football Group has now football clubs in the United States, Australia, India, Japan, Spain, Brazil, Uruguay, China, Belgium, France and Italy etc.