Football/soccer is the most popular sport in the world. The sport also boasts some of the most popular athletes in the world as well. Add the marketability factor to that, and one can understand why buying a soccer team is arguably amongst the best investments a billionaire can make.
From Machester City to Chelsea to RB Leipzig to PSG, it seems that conglomerates and state-owned entities have started recognizing the potential in the sport and are reaping the benefits of their investments. Recently, the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) did the same with Newcastle United.
PIF also has a lot of money, and with that money, they could buy both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi a surprising number of times.
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Who are Newcastle United’s new owners?
Newcastle United is a club that has barely managed to hang on to the first division in recent years. Their supporters have often been vocal about Mike Ashley [previous owner] and the management’s lack of pro-activeness in running the club. The announcement of a powerful new owner comes is a much-needed change for the Newcastle faithful.
Mike Ashley dissolved his partnership and sold the club to the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is led by Yasir Al-Rumayyan. Yasir paid 300 million pounds to buy the club, which elicited raucous applause from Newcastle supporters. PIF is the biggest football club owner in the world, with a reported net worth of 320 billion pounds.
A Saudi-Arabian backed consortium completed its purchase of Premier League club Newcastle United as a long-running takeover saga finally reached the conclusion the majority of the club's supporters desired https://t.co/bpbl0NpXEL pic.twitter.com/zGqdTNlA3s
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 8, 2021
How many times can Newcastle United buy Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi under their new owners?
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After the official announcement was released by the Premier League confirming the takeover, social media was rife with memes and transfer speculations. And for legit reasons as well. After all, the spending power of Newcastle United’s new owner is more than the spending powers of the owners of Manchester City and PSG combined, arguably the two biggest clubs today.
Picking up on the trend, TransferMarkt released statistics about how many times Newcastle United’s new owners could buy Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi.
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The stats, as expected, were insane. With a net- worth of 320 billion pounds, PIF can buy Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo 4700 and 8355 times, respectively, at their current market value. Simply incredible!
Also Read: How Rich Are Newcastle United?s New Owners Compared to Manchester City and PSG?