Carlos Slim Named World’s Richest Football Club Owner

Mexican business tycoon Carlos Slim is the world’s richest football club owner, according to a report conducted by high net worth intelligence provider, Wealth-X.

The new list that include investors and features teams from 11 countries, suggesting the worldwide appeal of sports clubs as trophy assets for the ultra wealthy.

Slim’s America Movil bought a 30 percent stake last year in Grupo Pachuca, whose holdings include first division Mexican football clubs Pachuca and Leon. Wealth-X, estimates Slim’s fortune at US$70 billion. Second is Amancio Ortega, founder of retailer Zara, who holds a stake in the Spanish Football League team, Deportivo De La Coruna.

The list also reveals that seven of the 20 clubs are from England, but are owned by foreign-born billionaires such as American hedge fund tycoon George Soros, Indian businessman Lakshmi Mittal and Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. Arsenal is the only club to be featured twice in the list due to the prominence of its UHNW owners: American businessman Stan Kroenke and his Russian counterpart Alisher Usmanov.

“Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who recently celebrated his 10 years as owner of Chelsea Football Club, seems to have laid the foundation for other billionaires to include a prestigious football team as a must-have trophy asset,” Wealth-X CEO Mykolas D. Rambus said. “Wealth-X data shows that 12 out of 20 have been owners for less than 10 years.”

Below is the first five billionaires: