LA Dodgers Owner Todd Boehly Makes a Monstrous $3B Takeover Bid for Chelsea
Chelsea, one of Premier League's most successful football clubs, is once again in the hot seat after a failed takeover attempt. The Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly has made an attempt to buy the English football club Chelsea, but the current owner, Russian billionaire tycoon Roman Abramovich, has reportedly rejected a takeover bid.
The US business tycoon has offered to buy the football club for a whopping $3 billion, which is $1 billion more than what Boehly and his Guggenheim partners paid when they acquired Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012, but his takeover price is of no interest to the current Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich. However, the latest report from Wall Street Journal claims that the current Chelsea owner is still open to a deal, if his price tag, which is thought to be around £3 billion according to The Sun, is met by the bidder.
Boehly has long been rumored of a takeover bid of an English football club, with Chelsea and Tottenham as his top options. The US tycoon has an estimated net worth of over £4.72 billion and has acquired numerous assets like The Hollywood Reporter and The Dick Clark Productions. He also owns 20 percent of the Major League baseball team, Los Angeles Dodgers.
Recent visa trouble pushing Abramovich further away
Born in Saratov, Russia, Roman Abramovich is a Russian-Israeli business tycoon and politician. He is the lead man behind the UK-based private investment firm Millhouse LLC. According to the US-based business publication Forbes, he Russian business tycoon has an estimated net worth of $12.9 billion, making him one of the richest man in Russia and the world.
He bought the London-based Chelsea football club back in 2003, but his role at the football club has been thrown into question in the past few years. The Russian billionaire is barely seen at Chelsea games now a days. Infact he has not attended a Chelsea match in England since the Home Office delayed his application for a UK investor visa last year.
Chelsea is currently the sixth most valuable football club in the world, with a reported valuation of over $2.5 billion or £2.13 billion. In addition to that, it also one of the highest-earning football clubs in the world, with reported earnings of over €428 million in the 2017–18 season alone, according to the latest data from the Deloitte Football Money League.
Also read: 5 players Chelsea should sign in January transfer window