It has been pretty clear to anyone paying attention that Lewis Hamilton has spent the last few years off-track setting up what he’ll do once he retires from Formula One. The seven-time world champ already owns an Extreme E racing team, a vegan restaurant called Neat Burger, a clothing line, and has been writing and recording music for over a decade. On Thursday the news arrived that Hamilton was involved with a consortium effort to purchase British football club Chelsea, alongside Sir Martin Broughton and Serena Williams, among others.
While Hamilton has described himself as a life-long Arsenal fan, now is a good time to invest in Chelsea. First of all, the club has been owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich since 2003. Abramovich was recently sanctioned by the UK government, and cannot benefit financially from the sale of the club, though as a potential peace broker between Russia and Ukraine, Abramovich has declared proceeds from the sale will go directly to victims of the war. Secondly, Chelsea is the reigning FIFA Club World Cup championship team, with some pretty great players on the squad. I’ve never heard of any of them because I know fuck all about Brit footy, aside from what I learned watching Ted Lasso.
Reports indicate that Hamilton and tennis champ Williams have each ponied up ten million pounds as part of the bid. Hamilton’s representation has confirmed that he is involved with the bid, but would not confirm how much he was in for. It would make sense that Hamilton would want to get involved in the sport, being that he’s a long-time fan and seriously wealthy. That’s just the kind of thing wealthy British people do, right? The guy is 37 years old, and can’t keep racing forever. At some point he’ll retire and will need to do something else. Why not invest in soccer?
There’s nothing saying he and his consortium will win the bid, however, as it is reported that at least two other groups are interested in purchasing the club. That said, it would probably be in the team’s best interest to be at least partially owned by one of Britain’s most famous sports personalities.
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