9 legendary players who own stakes in football clubs: Henry, Ronaldo, Mbappe…
Kylian Mbappe has become the latest superstar footballer to put their money into the game by investing in a club, but it’s becoming an increasingly common sight.
There have been some notable trendsetters in recent years. The world of football club ownership is infamously volatile, but there are some notable examples of famous football faces doing pretty well out of sticking their hands in their pockets to run football clubs.
Here are nine legendary players who own stakes in clubs.
David Beckham
Before Beckham had even hung up his boots with that final stint at PSG, there were whisperings in the media about investing in an MLS club and his post-football entrepreneurial career. Brand Beckham always felt too big for him to go into punditry or coaching.
After setting up Salford City with his fellow Class Of ’92 graduates and Singaporean investor Peter Lim, he has indeed launched an MLS club. Inter Miami took a fair while to launch off the ground, but it’s flying now – with the biggest array of superstars ever seen in the modern MLS era.
It all goes back to his time at a player with LA Galaxy. He reportedly took a considerable paycut from his Real Madrid salary, but he’s made the most of a reported clause in his contract that allowed him to buy an expansion franchise for just $25million. Fast forward to 2024 and Inter Miami’s value is estimated at over $600million.
Now he can consider himself the man responsible for bringing Lionel Messi to America, the country’s most high-profile signing since himself… or going back even further, the days of Pele at New York Cosmos.
“It’s just that effect that Leo has on the game and the world,” Beckham told Jimmy Kimmel.
“One of the reasons we wanted to bring him to America was to inspire the next generation. That was my plan. I obviously wanted to bring him for the player he is and the person he is. I played against him numerous times, actually twice thankfully, but I’ve been a fan of him and watched him for many years.
“And I always had the plan to bring the greatest player to ever play the game, in my opinion, to our team. Luckily, it happened.”
Didier Drogba
You probably remember those latter days of Drogba’s legendary career. Stints in Turkey in China before a title-winning return to Stamford Bridge, followed by a pretty prolific spell out in Canada with MLS outfit Montreal Impact.
But if we were to quiz you on every club of the Ivorian’s career, you’d probably forget the last one he played for – Phoenix Rising. After a few months out as a free agent, he signed up with the Arizona-based USL outfit, and also bought a minority stake.
We’ve heard of the player-manager, sadly lesser-seen these days. But the player-owner is even more rare, and as far as we’re aware Drogba was the first.
Drogba scored 17 goals in 26 appearances for the club before finally retiring in 2019. He still owns a stake in the club today, although they’ve as yet been unsuccessful in their attempts to join MLS.
N’Golo Kante
After leaving Chelsea last summer, Kante raised eyebrows in the world of football by purchasing, and becoming chairman of, Belgian third-tier club Royal Excelsior Virton.
“Flavio is obviously extremely happy to be able to hand over the keys of the club to N’Golo Kante,” announced the club in a statement.
“[He is] a player of great class, not only for his footballing qualities but also and above all for his unanimously recognised human qualities.”
No arguments from us. Although his decision to take the Saudi cash was a little disappointing.
Last season Royal Excelsior Virton finished 10th in the Belgian National Division 1.
READ: 12 reasons why it’s impossible not to love N’Golo Kante
Paolo Maldini
Beckham is not the only European Cup-winning icon of the European game to invest his cash out in the Florida sunshine. Maldini was actually there ahead of Beckham, setting up USL outfit Miami FC back in 2015.
“When I set up Miami FC, Paolo helped us raise the profile of the club, and he also helped in having Alessandro Nesta as Miami FC’s first-ever head coach,” Miami FC owner Riccardo Silva told Transfermarkt.
These days the legendary Italian defender isn’t involved with the club, having turned his attention back to AC Milan as technical director.
“There were never any plans to create any formal links between the two clubs [Miami and Milan], even though both represent passions of mine. But I wouldn’t rule it out in the future,” Silva continued.
Unfortunately that looks less likely now after Maldini left his role as Milan technical director following tensions with the Rossoneri board.
Ronaldo
O Fenomeno owns a majority 82% stake in Spanish club Real Valladolid, who have spent the last couple of years yo-yoing between La Liga and the Segunda Division.
The two-time World Cup winner also held a stake in embattled Brazilian giants Cruzeiro, but he agreed to sell amid their off-pitch struggles back in April.
“My answer will be a short one; Valladolid is next,” Ronaldo said at the time. “I will take some time off (after selling both Cruzeiro and Valladolid).”
However, he’s recently done a U-Turn and announced his intention to continue as Valladolid’s owner, seemingly due to a lack of compelling offers. It was recently reported that he turned down a €28million offer from construction firm Inexo.
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Gerard Pique
Even whilst Pique was still playing professionally at Barcelona, he was talked up as a future club president… such is his entrepreneurial spirit, with fingers in many pies in the world of sport.
He’s currently under investigation for his alleged involvement in illegal payments in the relocation of Spain’s Super Cup to Saudi Arabia. He was also involved in tennis, although in January 2023 the International Tennis Federation decided to end its deal with the ex-footballer’s company to organise the Davis Cup after less than five years. Not to mention his E-Sports team or his seven-a-side Kings League venture, which brings together YouTubers and ex-pros.
Phew.
On the football front – proper football, not on a screen or played by influencers – he’s also the owner of lower league outfit FC Andorra, having bought them back in 2018. Last season they finished 21st in the Segunda Division and found themselves relegated to the Spanish third tier.
Dare we question the four-time Champions League winner… but it seems like his business ventures could be going better.
Thierry Henry
“One of the targets is to invest in the community of Como and create a synergy with local people through initiatives that can be useful to create employment,” Henry told reporters in a press conference back in August 2022.
“Como has a nice history, it is known for the beauty of the city and the lake but hopefully, it will soon be known for football.”
Fast forward two years and Como are now a Serie A club, with Henry’s old Arsenal team-mate Cesc Fabregas in the dugout – and also a stakeholder – so it’s fair to say they’re achieving their goals.
The current France Under-21 coach only owns a small minority stake in the club, but as excuses go for spending time in the beautiful scenery of Lake Como it’s a pretty good one. Watching an eclectic squad that features Raphael Varane, Pepe Reina, Alberto Moreno, Andrea Belotti and Patrick Cutrone? Even better.
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Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Excitable tabloid reports speculated that Ibrahimovich might be returning home to see out his playing career in Sweden after he became co-owner of Hammarby back in 2019.
He was a free agent after leaving LA Galaxy. He did indeed end up making a romantic return that year… but to the San Siro, where he scored a further 37 goals for AC Milan, won another Scudetto, and played into his forties.
Strictly speaking, signing for Hammarby wouldn’t have been a return home anyway – as irate fans of his hometown club Malmo will tell you. They responded to the Hammarby news by attempting to burn down his statue outside their stadium. Ouch.
At the time of writing, Hammarby find themselves third in the Swedish Allsvenskan table… but seven points behind league leaders and reigning champions Malmo. Penny for Zlatan’s thoughts.
Kylian Mbappe
It’s been a big summer for Mbappe. He broke his nose, had an underwhelming Euros, finally left PSG to fulfil his lifelong ambition of joining Real Madrid… and paid under €20million to buy 80% of the shares in Caen.
The Ligue 2 side are one of a number of sides in French football currently struggling financially. The likes of N’Golo Kante, Thomas Lemar and Raphael Guerrero have all passed through Caen in recent years and it will be fascinating to see where Mbappe can take them.
“Honestly, people had been talking to me about it for a month, but I didn’t believe it,” former coach Patrice Garande told La Parisien.
“This is extraordinary news. First of all, obviously, for the financial guarantees that come with it. But also for the club’s image. Being associated with the name of the best player on the planet is necessarily a considerable springboard.
‘We know Kylian’s ambition, his winning culture. If he comes here, it’s not on a whim, it’s clearly to win, and therefore build a group that allows this club to return to the elite.”