John Textor was hailed as a saviour when he purchased Brazilian soccer crew Botafogo final 12 months. “I’m going all the way down to Rio and I’m handled like a king in all places I’m going,” he mentioned of his early days in cost.

However after promoting a participant in January to Olympique Lyonnais, additionally owned by Textor’s Eagle Soccer, followers felt betrayed and the US businessman began receiving dying threats.

“Off one participant deal I needed to change my cellphone quantity,” he mentioned.” You wouldn’t imagine how fast and the way reactive issues could be.”

A relative newcomer to soccer, Textor is considered one of a brand new breed of membership house owners looking for to purchase into groups throughout completely different leagues. The multiclub mannequin is the most well liked pattern within the sport, with greater than 180 groups now a part of a broader community, based on soccer’s European governing physique Uefa.

Alongside Lyon and Botafogo, Eagle owns Belgian tier-two crew RWD Molenbeek and about 40 per cent of south London Premier League aspect Crystal Palace. After enlisting plenty of Wall Avenue backers, the corporate plans to drift within the US in a primary for the trade.

Textor’s background is just not sport however digital actuality and visible results — his previous enterprise ventures embody bringing rapper Tupac Shakur again to life as a hologram. The 57-year-old stresses that even now he’s not an “investor”, preferring to invoice himself as a “builder of firms”.

“There’s no extra offensive phrase within the English language than ‘investor’ to me, as a result of that simply says your value and your contribution can solely be measured in cash,” he informed the Monetary Instances.

Textor has nonetheless joined forces with plenty of financiers. At Crystal Palace he sits on a four-man board with Apollo co-founder Josh Harris and Blackstone govt David Blitzer, alongside membership chair Steve Parish.

US funding group Ares supplied about €400mn of financing for the Lyon takeover and now has two board seats at Eagle. The $100mn fairness portion of the deal got here from Jamie Dinan, founding father of hedge fund York Capital, and Alexander Knaster, the founding father of Pamplona Capital who used to run the now sanctions-hit Russian lender Alfa-Financial institution, by their firm Iconic Sports activities Administration, alongside tech-focused fund Elmwood Companions. Dinan and Knaster sit on the Eagle board.

Producing younger gamers — a course of Textor calls “asset creation” — is the thread operating by Eagle’s golf equipment. Textor’s cash helped full the brand new academy at Crystal Palace, based mostly in one of many world’s most efficient cities for younger expertise, whereas Molenbeek and Botafogo are nicely positioned to search out gamers in Brussels and Rio de Janeiro, respectively.

Participant buying and selling could be profitable. Portugal’s Benfica, by which Textor as soon as tried to purchase a stake, has offered gamers value €840mn up to now 5 years, based on Transfermarkt, at a buying and selling revenue of €480mn, the very best in Europe. Lyon ranks third, producing €272mn over the identical interval.

However Textor’s technique is much from distinctive. There are actually greater than 70 multiclub possession teams in soccer, based on Deloitte, a lot of them constructed on the identical thesis of sensible scouting and participant buying and selling.

Ares, which raised $3.7bn final 12 months for a sport and leisure fund, noticed the chance in Eagle to affix a “pre-wired, multiclub technique of some nice golf equipment with an incredible platform”, based on companion Mark Affolter.

Primarily based on 2021-22 accounts, the mixed income of Eagle’s property would rank it within the high 20 of the game’s richest golf equipment — simply behind Italian champions AC Milan, purchased by US traders final 12 months for €1.2bn.

“There’s much more low-hanging fruit in European soccer,” mentioned Dinan, who can be a co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks basketball crew and has joined the Lyon board. “I really like the property John has.” 

As a part of the Lyon deal, Eagle put agreements in place for a possible merger with Iconic Sports activities Acquisition Company, a New York-listed blank-cheque firm sponsored by Dinan and Knaster and managed by London-based boutique advisory Tifosy. A profitable itemizing would make it the primary multiclub soccer enterprise to go public, with a tentative valuation of $1.2bn, based on SEC filings.

Textor sees public markets as an antidote to the rich states and people who management a lot of soccer’s high golf equipment. “It’s not the Wall St satan we’re speaking about,” he mentioned. “It’s a type of possession which carefully approximates group possession.”

Nonetheless, Textor’s enterprise file and lack of expertise in sport have raised some considerations. He was concerned within the 2006 buyout of Digital Area, changing into chief govt of the manufacturing home liable for the sinking of the Titanic in James Cameron’s Oscar-winning 1997 movie.

A 12 months after itemizing on the New York Inventory Change, the corporate bumped into monetary hassle and slid out of business in late 2012. Whereas Textor blames this on unscrupulous hedge funds, others on the time pointed to his aggressive progress technique.

His wealth finally returned. In 2020, Textor merged considered one of his firms with fuboTV, a US sports activities streamer aiming to be the “Netflix of soccer”, changing into govt chair and the most important shareholder. He exited six months later within the midst of a inventory market rally that will give the corporate a peak market capitalisation of $8bn. The share value has since tumbled and it’s now value lower than $400mn. 

Textor ascribes his reinvention as a soccer entrepreneur to the darkish days of previous failures. After the collapse of Digital Area, he misplaced his fortune and his “faux mates vanished”. He discovered solace teaching a children’ soccer crew in Florida, and have become a soccer obsessive.

“I used to be driving the bus, I used to be doing the laundry for uniforms in between video games,” he mentioned. “I’m not attempting to make this sound like a sob story — however it’s what it’s. I believe this soccer factor form of saved me.” 

The acquisition of Lyon, by far Textor’s greatest transfer in soccer, has attracted two frequent criticisms from rivals and traders — that he paid and borrowed an excessive amount of. The €800mn price ticket, together with the membership’s roughly €315mn in debt, was agreed in June final 12 months when rates of interest have been nonetheless low and set a file in French soccer by some margin.

Lyon, the dominant power in France’s Ligue 1 within the early 2000s, has not received the league since 2008. The crew at the moment sits ninth within the desk.

Textor mentioned “solely an fool” would suppose he overpaid. He identified that the debt — structured as most well-liked fairness — was secured towards his shares within the firm, not membership property, and that he wished Eagle to be debt-free inside two years.

Within the brief time period, the main target is on constructing the corporate by hiring a chief govt and different senior administration for its London headquarters.

But followers throughout the 4 golf equipment have expressed unease. After an FT report on the itemizing plans, Crystal Palace supporters held up banners at a recreation denouncing “inventory market playing”, whereas Lyon followers have complained that the spending promised through the takeover has not materialised. Even at high-flying Molenbeek, some followers have complained that the membership is shedding its Belgian id.

Textor understands the scepticism, however urges endurance.

“It’s simple for folks to say Individuals are dangerous, multiclub is dangerous,” he mentioned. “I get it — followers don’t know me and so they don’t know my coronary heart. They suppose I’m a cash man.”