Why are Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and other footballers buying clubs? | OneFootball

Last week it was announced that Lionel Messi had agreed a deal to become the majority shareholder in second division Spanish side CD Eldense, who will become the second team that arguably the greatest player in history will own, having purchased Catalan side Cornellà earlier this year.

Messi is one of several footballers who have recently decided to become owners of clubs. Earlier in the summer, it was announced that Thomas Muller and Mats Hummels were part of a consortium that had agreed to purchase Portuguese side Estrela da Amadora. Thibaut Courtois is building a multi-club ownership group, with stakes in Les Mans and KRC Genk already, whilst Cristiano Ronaldo, Vinicius Jr and Kylian Mbappe have all similarly decided to take equity stakes in football clubs in the last two years.

This all begs the question: why? Why do football players want to become owners of football teams, and why are the clubs they choose to buy typically lower-division teams such as Eldense?

Of course, to some extent the explanation is simply emotional; players want to maintain a connection to the game they have spent their whole life playing. Owning a club, and exhibiting total control over how it is run, is an attractive way of maintaining such a connection after a playing career ends.

The clubs purchased are also often ones with which the player has a special relationship. It is no coincidence for example that Cornellà, the first club which Messi acquired, is based in Catalonia where the Argentine spent so many of his formative years. Thibaut Courtois explained his investment into KRC Genk earlier this year as driven by a desire to return “home” to the club which offered him his first-team debut at the age of 16.

Beyond emotion, there are however logical commercial reasons as to why a player would look to own a football club.

One such reason is that a high-profile player can use their status and network to unlock value in a club that other football club owners simply cannot. In other words – they have a competitive advantage as owners of a club simply by virtue of who they are.

Take Eldense as an example. Eldense achieved just under €2m of commercial revenue according to their latest published accounts. The mere association with the brand of Lionel Messi – from whom a single Instagram post is reportedly valued in excess of $2 million – will unlock commercial revenues for Eldense that are simply not available to other Spanish second division clubs. Owning a club – particularly a lower-league club – is therefore a way for a player to use their brand and platform to create unique enterprise value.

Another, more subtle, reason is that football clubs offer influence and relevance for players that can benefit their wider business interests beyond football. As an owner of a football club, players open a channel of direct access to local and potentially national politicians and business leaders. If they are looking to start businesses in other sectors in the region, owning a football club can offer the necessary access to launch and scale those adjacent businesses.

The acquisition of Salford City FC by former Manchester United players, including Gary Neville, in 2014 is perhaps the best illustration of this point. Since acquiring Salford, Neville has launched a number of other businesses in the wider Lancashire area, including the University Academy 92 which opened in Manchester in 2019. Although by no means solely a direct consequence of his ownership of Salford, the ability to launch and grow businesses in the surrounding area cannot have been harmed by Neville funding and owning the community asset which is the football club.

Equally, football players are investing in more assets generally. A number of players for example are active venture capital investors. Mario Götze runs his own venture investment fund, whilst Chris Smalling is an investor in The Players Fund, the London-based athlete VC fund. An increased interest in football club investments is, to some extent, simply a reflection of the fact that football players are becoming increasingly sophisticated investors seeking returns through a range of non-correlated assets – of which football clubs are one.

In some ways, European football is catching up to a trend that has long been prevalent in the United States. NBA and NFL athletes have frequently taken ownership stakes in clubs for the past 20 years, most notably Michael Jordan’s investment in the Charlotte Hornets in 2006. Jordan exited the Hornets in 2023, at a reported $3 billion valuation which would represent more than a 10x return on his initial investment.

Returns like that demonstrate the value which sports franchise ownership can unlock for athletes, and illustrate why the trend continues to grow amongst European football players.