Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus opens up on why he turned away from Marseille | OneFootball

Sunderland owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has explained why he chose to invest in English football rather than pursue a future at Olympique de Marseille, the club once owned by his family. The Black Cats, promoted back to the Premier League this season, currently sit in an impressive fourth place.

Speaking to Canal+, Louis-Dreyfus said his past around OM shaped his view of the French game at the time of his mother Margarita Louis-Dreyfus’ sale of the club in 2016.

“Maybe it comes from having been part of a family that owned a club in France,” he said. “Even in 2016, you could already see the structural problems coming with the TV rights.”

The 27-year-old added that the prospect of working in England had long appealed to him. “I always dreamed of going to England. I always saw it as the best league in the world.”

Louis-Dreyfus also revealed that he bought Sunderland during the COVID-19 pandemic without being able to visit the club beforehand. “If I had attended a League One match, I probably wouldn’t have bought it,” he admitted. “It was still a shock to go from Olympique de Marseille, who were playing the biggest matches in Ligue 1, and find yourself in a stadium of 1,000 people with a pitch not in very good condition.”GFFN | George Boxall