Trillion-dollar wealth of new Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan
The
week football went mad: Astonishing wealth of Man City's new owner
Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Owners want to snatch Ronaldo from Man Utd
State rakes in $500m a day if oil rises $1 a barrel Abramovich's wealth
will look like chicken feed
This is the trillion-dollar man behind the mega-rich Arabs promising to build a global super-team at Manchester City.
Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan is the brother of the ruler of Abu Dhabi, the biggest of the United Arab Emirates.
Within
an estimated family fortune of $1trillion (£555billion) he is set to
make the £11.7billion spending power of Chelsea's Russian owner Roman
Abramovich look like chicken feed.
The club's new owners are
set to bankroll a mind-boggling £540million spending spree - including
an audacious £135million swoop for Cristiano Ronaldo from arch rivals
Manchester United.
Oil-rich Middle East business group Abu
Dhabi United's spokesman says they will try to snatch the World Player
of the Year in January.
And we can reveal the staggering
wealth of the tycoon behind the group whose sensational developments
threaten to turn football on its head.
His mega-deep coffers
have been boosted by the surge in oil prices - for it is said every
time the price of a barrel goes up a dollar, Abu Dhabi makes another
$500million a day.
The Sheikh has spent £210million buying a
90 per cent stake in Manchester City - fired into action by the intense
rivalry Abu Dhabi has with its smaller yet even more successful Emirate
neighbour Dubai.
In a similar competitive move into the
sporting world, Abu Dhabi splashed out £91million for a five per cent
stake in Ferrari three years ago in the hope Formula One will give it a
Grand Prix.
And the Emirate has also bought one of New York's best-known skyscrapers, the Chrysler Building, for Û800million last year.
Now
Sheikh Mansour plans to take City to dizzy heights and put even mighty
Manchester United in the shade by turning his new plaything into the
biggest club on the planet.
Other big-money transfer targets are thought to include Liverpool's Fernando Torres and Arsenal's Cesc Febregas.
Former
Arsenal legend Thierry Henry and Valencia's goal-getting Spanish Euro
2006 striker David Villa are also believed to be on City's shopping
list. It follows the stunning £33million transfer-deadline signing of
Real Madrid's Brazilian superstar forward Robinho from under the noses
of high-rollers Chelsea.
But a deal to lure Ronaldo from arch
rivals Manchester United in the next transfer window would prove the
biggest scalp - despite his wish to move to Spain.
Dr Sulaiman
al-Fahim, frontman of the Abu Dhabi United Group, said: "Ronaldo has
said he wants to play for the biggest club in the world, so we will see
in January if he is serious. Real Madrid were estimating his value at
Û160m but to actually get him, will cost a lot more. But why not? We
are going to be the biggest club in the world, bigger than both Real
Madrid and Manchester United."
The deal could spark a wave of
similar takeovers by oil-rich foreign backers. Financial advisor Amanda
Stavely, who brokered the Abu Dhabi deal, explained why the Middle East
consortium were keen.
"The Premier League without doubt as a
sporting brand is a great opportunity," she said. "We should be very
proud of British football. "Any outside or foreign investor can only be
excited to get involved in a world-class league. Manchester City sells
itself."
The Abu Dhabi United Group is among of a new breed of investors known as sovereign wealth funds.
These
off-shoots of governments, mainly from the Middle East, have grown
massively wealthy on the back of soaring oil prices. And with oil
rising from 23 a barrel in 2002 to $147 this year, they are running out
of things to buy at home.
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[uredio Blue World - 18. siječnja 2009. u 00:18]