The trend of buying clubs in Europe has expanded enormously in the last decade. Billionaire owners from different parts of the world have been taking over clubs like PSG, or Chelsea this year and making huge transactions.
However, one of the first clubs to have this approach was probably Manchester City. They have never been a team used to winning titles in their history. In fact, their town rivals Manchester United, Liverpool and even Arsenal are ahead of them in the all-time list.
But there is no denying they have closed the gap especially since they hired Pep Guardiola for the 2016-2017 season. They will be playing the Champions League final next month after humiliating Real Madrid with a 4-0 home win in the semifinals. Part of that merit should definitely go to the massive investments they made.
Who is the owner of Manchester City?
The investments made by the Citizens have been growing every year. For this season they acquired a top striker like Erling Haaland, although they also completed big moves in the past such as spending over 100 million euros in Jack Grealish. That raises the question of who is behind those important decisions.
Manchester City is owner by City Football Group Limited. This is a British-based holding group that is divided into three corporations, but 81% of it is owned by Abu Dhabi United Group. An American firm called Silver Lake has 18%, while the remaining 1% is attached to Chinese organizations China Media Capital and CITIC Capital.
Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan is referred to as the owner of Manchester City because he indeed leads the group that has the majority of the club. He became the owner of the club in 2008. They also have plenty of clubs around the globe as part of their portfolio, with New York City FC being one of those teams.
