Explore prominent Nigerians who own football clubs across Europe, highlighting their contributions to the world of sports and football.
Here are Nigerians who own football clubs in some European countries.
1. Kunle Soname (club C.D. Feirense, Portugal and Remo Stars, Nigeria)
Kunle Soname is a politician, entrepreneur, sport enthusiast and the chairman of Bet9ja, a betting website he founded in 2013.
He is the owner of European club C.D. Feirense, which he bought in 2015.
Remo Stars Football Club previously known as FC DENDER was also founded by Soname in 2004.
The club was relocated from Lagos State to Remo area of Ogun State, and is playing in the Nigerian Premier League’s Top Division.
He is the founder of the private Nigerian airline ValueJet.
2. Shola Akinlade (Aarhus Fremad, Denmark and Sporting Lagos FC, Nigeria)
Shola Akinlade, the co-founder and CEO of Paystack (now Stripe), is the owner of Danish club Aarhus Fremad and Sporting Lagos FC.
The 38-year-old bought a 55 percent stake in the 76-year-old Danish club, which plays in the second-division of the Danish League, making him the majority owner.
The club are second of the Danish second division with four points, with the hope of securing qualification to the Danish first division next season.
In 2022, Shola founded Sporting Lagos FC, a Lagos-based football club that competes in the Nigeria National League.
The purchase of Aarhus means that the Danish club will become a sister club to Sporting Lagos. Before Shola purchased the Danish club, it was experiencing financial difficulties. The club reported a two million kroner ( about eighty nine million Naira) loss over the previous two years in its most recent financial report.
3. Dorothy Nneka Ede (Lusitano Ginásio Clube, Portugal)
Ede is the first Nigerian woman to acquire a club in Europe.
She is the owner of Portuguese clubside, Lusitano Ginásio Clube, MHC, also known as Lusitano de Évora.
The club is based in Évora and competes in the Campeonato de Portugal, the Portuguese football system’s fourth-tier league.
Ede’s ownership of the 110-year-old team in Portugal’s third division began in June 2020.
The club’s home stadium, Estádio do Lusitânia in Lourosa, has a total capacity of 10,000 people.
Recall Emeraldloaded Reported that The President and Chief Executive of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, in a recent interview expressed regret for not buying Premier League Club, Arsenal FC.
He said it appears that the “time has passed” for him to buy the club stating that he wished he had bought the English side club when the team was valued at around $2 billion.
The billionaire business mogul in 2020 made known his intention to go for the North London club after his refinery project.
Dangote told Bloomberg’s Francine Lacqua that he missed out on buying Arsenal by committing his resources to the refinery project.
