Aliko Dangote, the Africa’s richest man said he still wants to buy Arsenal the English Premier League soccer team even after its owners rebuffed him in 2010.
Dangote is an Arsenal fan who is worth $15.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, discussed buying a stake in the club five years ago before talks with the owners fell through, he said. Since then his wealth has grown more than sevenfold.
Dangote said he hopes, one day at the right price, that he will buy the team.
Dangote who is 58 years told our correspondence in an interview that
“I might buy it, not at a ridiculous price but a price that the owners won’t want to resist. I know my strategy.”
Arsenal is one of the top clubs in England ,having won 13 top flight league titles in England, and also the most after Manchester United and Liverpool.
Arsenal is presently valued at £988 million ($1.49 billion).
Dangote is an Arsenal fan who is worth $15.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, discussed buying a stake in the club five years ago before talks with the owners fell through, he said. Since then his wealth has grown more than sevenfold.
Dangote said he hopes, one day at the right price, that he will buy the team.
Dangote who is 58 years told our correspondence in an interview that
“I might buy it, not at a ridiculous price but a price that the owners won’t want to resist. I know my strategy.”
Arsenal is one of the top clubs in England ,having won 13 top flight league titles in England, and also the most after Manchester United and Liverpool.
Arsenal is presently valued at £988 million ($1.49 billion).
A successful bid would make Dangote the first African to own aclub in a league where billionaires are found.
This puts him positions where the Russia’s Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea, and Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, who controls Manchester City, have acquired teams.
Stan Kroenke, who is worth $5.6 billion and also the owner of the National Football League’s St. Louis Rams, and also holds 67 percent of Arsenal, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
About 30 percent is owned by Red & White Sec Ltd., controlled by billionaire Alisher Usmanov, a former Uzbekistan youth fencing champion who is now Russia’s third-richest man, and Farhad Moshiri.
Dan Tolhurst, a spokesman for the London-based club, declined to comment as did Rollo Head, a spokesman for Usmanov in London. Tomago Collins, a spokesman for Kroenke in Denver, did not immediately respond to e-mails requesting comment.
Dangote has interests in sugar and flour and controls Dangote Cement Plc, Nigeria’s biggest publicly traded company. He is investing $11 billion in a 650,000 barrel-a-day oil refinery near Lagos and as much as $2.5 billion in gas pipelines running to the city from Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger River delta region.
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