Liverpool supporter LeBron James is putting more of his money into the club, according to reports, which say the best player in basketball is buying into the Premier League champions.
James already owned 2 percent of the club’s shares and has been investor in the club since 2011 along with partner Maverick Carter, but is set to buy into John Henry’s Fenway Sports Group, the group that owns Liverpool and Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox.
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The Boston Globe says the deal could take time to conclude due to MLB’s approval processes of RedBird Capital Partners’ bigger buy into FSG. RedBird is set to own 11 percent of FSG upon approval.
While the LeBron aspect will get a lot of the headlines, there is an eye-popping list of sporting plans from FSG>
On FSG’s shopping wish list are NFL and NBA franchises, another European soccer club, NHL, MLS, WNBA, and NWSL teams, plus sports betting, esports, and data analytics companies.
Wow.
Manchester City’s City Football Group has set the standard for buying into many different soccr leagues, while Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke owns the Colorado Rapids and several other properties. Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan owned a part of LAFC before selling it to focus on his Championship side.
Safe to say LeBron won’t be asking to bring Zlatan Ibrahimovic into the mix, nor would the Los Angeles Lakers star carry a lot of weight with Boston Celtics fans (or his beloved Cleveland team in MLB).
But he’s proven to be a savvy businessman and has been planting the seeds of this for some time. Now will Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bring Wrexham up the leagues and into a Hollywood v hoops top-flight rivalry?
