Top 10 Richest Club Owners In The World (2023)

The richest club owners may not necessarily understand the passion that drives sports; to them, they have invested huge amounts into the clubs, and they just want to see results. Sometimes, they do get results, and then the clubs bring in even more money to the filthy rich people. Envious of their success, other filthy rich people join in; they purchase football clubs of their own, and one wonders who exactly are the richest club owners in the world. 

In this post, we highlight the financial powerhouses in football today and discover more facts about these people that are not all that are not common knowledge. When we highlight the personalities on this list, we can attempt to discover whether or not they have any knowledge of the game, and what it takes to run a successful football club.

Money certainly makes everything easier; you can certainly attract quality players to help you turn the fortunes of a club around, just as the paragraphs below will show. 

Richest Club Owners In The World

1. The Bin Salman Al Saud family

The Bin Salman Al Saud family is the royal family of Saudi Arabia, and they control the sovereign wealth fund of the country. It is quite difficult to separate state-owned property from what belongs to the royal family, and that is why it remains unclear whether or how the investment will be managed, and how the revenue generated by the club will be shared.

The Public Investment Fund is worth $430bn, and through that fund, the Al Sauds have taken control of Newcastle United Football Club. They just bought an 80 percent stake of the club in October 2021, and now they have added it to a portfolio that includes investments in projects in select locations around the world, including Brazil, France, the United States, India, and Russia.

2. Steve Ballmer

Steve Anthony Ballmer is an American businessman who has made quite a name for himself in the world at large. He was born on March 24, 1956, and as a philanthropist and an investor, he is widely known for his job as the chief executive of Microsoft, although in 2014, he went on to do something else for himself to make so much money.  Steve Ballmer is one of the richest club owners in the world, and it is no surprise because Steve Ballmer is a businessman with a lot of attitude and reasoning.

Steve Baller has an estimated net worth of $105.2 billion and he is the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers NBA club. He became the sole owner of the club on August 12, 2014, and so far, his club has done so well at the NBA.

3. Mukesh Ambani

His full name is known as Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani, and he was born on April 19, 1957. Mukesh Ambani is a chairman, a director, and the one man with a very large shareholding capacity in a company known as Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). This company is known globally for its dealings with the refinery, oil, and petrochemicals.

Mukesh Ambani is said to be the sole owner of about 44% of the shareholding capacity, and it is definitely no surprise again that he tops this list. Mukesh Ambani comes from a family of four children, and his late father was Dhirubhai Ambani. He was raised with his siblings by his mother Kokilaben Ambani, and his brother who is his only male sibling is known as Anil Ambani.

Mukesh Ambani is also ranked on the list of most powerful people in the world by Forbes. Mukesh Ambani is the sole owner of a club in India known as Mumbai Indians.

4. Dietrich Mateschitz

Dietrich Mateschitz hails from Australia, the only person on this list that is building an empire transcending sports. What we mean is that the football clubs are his tool with which he is building something much bigger. You will find that he buys the clubs, transforms them by making them more competitive, and changes their names to include “Red Bull.” 

Yes, he is the co-founder, and 49 percent owner of the energy drink Red Bull. That is one of the pioneers, and the most notable energy drinks in the market, and so, armed with the billions of dollars generated by that successful venture, Dietrich Mateschitz has built a sporting empire encompassing many different sports.

The best part is that his teams are competitive; as they attain success in their respective fields, they also drive sales in the energy drink that sponsors them. He also teamed up with some partners to form a foundation that is known to support the research on the spinal cord. He is the sole owner of three profound teams known as New York Red Bulls, Red Bull Racing, and Red Bull-Toro Rosso Honda. His net worth is appreciated to an estimated value of $25.3 billion. 

5. Sheikh Mansour

Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is better known as Sheikh Mansour, is best known for his ownership of Manchester City in England. However, through his holding company the City Football Group, he has several other football clubs in different leagues in different corners of the world.

Sheikh Mansour is a member of the royal family of Abu Dhabi. He is the deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, and he is also the minister of presidential affairs. He is a billionaire, and he is the number one most notable club owner in football.

6. Roman Abramovich

His full name is known as Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich, and he is known as an Israeli-Russian businessman. He owns a private investment company called Millhouse LLC and was formerly the governor of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug.

Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea success is perhaps the biggest motivation for other billionaires who now join into buying football clubs like a kind of gold rush. However, when the Russian businessman acquired the Chelsea Football Club of England back in 2003 and continued investing by bringing in talent to the club, many people must have thought he was crazy. He has proved them all wrong with 5 league titles, and two champions leagues, not to mention many other successes.

Mr. Abramovich is a football fan and a proud owner of one of the biggest football clubs in the world known as Chelsea FC. He is passionate about the club and does not hesitate to spend money to make the club better. He has an estimated net worth value is about $14.6 billion. 

7. Andrea Agnelli & family 

The Agnelli family is an old, aristocratic Italian family. This is the family that owns Juventus, an old and historic football club in Italy. Andrea Agnelli leads the family and is the man at the helm of affairs. He is also the chairman of the European Club Association (ECA). It is hard to determine whether or not Juventus has been a successful investment for the family because these are hard times for Italian football. 

The economic troubles of the last decade have not allowed Italian clubs to compete for the best playing talents, and while Juventus have won quite a bag full of local trophies, they have not yet been able to replicate that success on the continent.

Agnelli family has businesses and investments in the motor car industry; they produce such brands as Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, and so on.

8. Dietmar Hopp

Dietmar Hopp is a renowned technology creator, businessman, and philanthropist. He is one of the pioneers of the German software industry. It is said that Dietmar Hopp did not buy Hoffenheim as an investment from which he hopes to make huge returns; rather he has only made money available to help fund the club. Apparently, Dietmar Hopp has been a long-time lover of this club; he even played some football himself, before deciding to concentrate on his work as a software developer.

Dietmar Hopp is the brain behind SAP SE. He is worth at least 7.3 billion dollars, which is why he has been criticized for not putting more money into the club, despite already paying about 400 million dollars for it.  

9. Philip Anschutz

Philip Anschutz is an American billionaire businessman and the ninth-richest club owner in the world. However, he is a certified sports fan who perhaps believes that football will gain a strong foothold in America, and so wants a place at the table. He certainly has that place: he is a founding member of Major League Soccer.

Philip is known to be in control of so many companies and he deals with investments of top companies in America. His businesses include energy, railroads, real estate, newspapers, movies, theaters, arenas, and music production. 

His net worth is estimated at a value of $10.5 billion. 

10. Stan Kroenke 

American billionaire Stan Kroenke, through his Kroenke Sports and Entertainment company, is the owner of Premier League club Arsenal. Perhaps there is still time to decide whether or not his investment into Arsenal Football Club is a success or not. 

Besides Arsenal, he also owns MLS side Colorado Rapids, as well as many other teams in other sports as well. His net worth is estimated at $10.7 billion., making him the 11th wealthiest club owner in the world.

11. Hasso Plattner & Family

Hasso Plattner hails from Germany and he is a businessman with a swift and calculative mind. He was born on January 21, 1944, and he was one of the people who established a software company known as SAP SE. As an entrepreneur, he has been in affiliations with so many countries including South Africa.

He enacted charity work, which was geared towards the fight against AIDS in the country, and he is a sole supporter of two Universities in South Africa known as KwaZulu Natal and Cape Town Universities. He is happily married with two children all of which reside in Potsdam in Germany.

He owns the San Jose Sharks club and has a net worth estimated value of about $9.2 billion. 

12. Nasser Al-Khelaifi 

Qatari businessman Nasser Al-Khelaifi, through his company Qatar Sports Investments, owns and operates the French team Paris Saint-Germain. His investment has yielded some broken records; PSG has attracted some astounding talent; including Neymar, and Messi who is regarded as the greatest player ever.

However, despite his huge investments, it remains to be seen whether or not PSG will become a continental powerhouse.

13. Zhang Jindong

Zhang Jindong is a Chinese billionaire. Through his company Suning Holdings Group, he acquired a majority ownership share in the Italian club Internazionale Milano in 2016. The club has already won the Italian league and has already started to draw in top talent from all over the world.

There is still time to prove without any doubt that the club will benefit from his money.

14. Micky Arison

He is known as a businessman of two nationalities which are; Israeli and American. He is the chairman of Carnival Corporation and plc which is known for operating cruises and is the largest in the world. He was soon replaced as chairman by Arnold Donald, and so he went further to do other things for himself.

He got married to Madeleine Arison who gave birth to two children for him. He is the owner of an MBA club known as Miami heat and his son Nick Arison currently serves as the CEO of the club. His net worth is estimated at about $6.7 billion.

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Conclusion

One common thing amongst the richest club owners in the world is that aside from loving sport so much, they are all intellectual in the business field which helps them manage their clubs well. Every one of them has a spot on the list of the world’s wealthiest people.

As more and more billionaires rush into club ownership like a gold rush, what that portends for our beloved football in the future remains to be determined. However, one clear thing is that football- sports, in general, will never remain the same again. From now on the business end which was previously downplayed- will continue to be more important.