Africa’s richest man,Aliko Dangote, has said he will consider buying another football club if Premiership club Arsenal won’t be sold to him.
The Nigerian businessman – who is worth £10.4billion and is currently at number 66 on Forbes Magazine’s list of the most powerful people in 2018 – has long been linked with purchasing the Gunners , and first stated his desire to do so back in 2010.
Dangote, who is a fan of the club has been wanting to buy the British club for years. He says he’ll make a move only after he has completed one of the world’s biggest oil refineries in Lagos.
The following years have brought more and more links with him purchasing a significant stake in the club, and Dangote – who started his first business at the age of 21 and founded Africa’s largest cement provider – says he plans to make a move for the Gunners in two years’ time.
‘We will go after Arsenal from 2020… even if somebody buys, we will still go after it,’Dangote, 61, told Reuters.
“By the time we’ve finished, we’ll be a $30bn company in terms of revenue,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg TV at the New Economy Forum in Singapore. “We’ll have an excess amount of cash to start playing around with.”
“I’m very attached to Arsenal but if he won’t sell, I might have to change,” said Dangote, 61 years old and worth $11.1bn. “I’m very much a fan of football. I’ll like to have a club. I don’t have to own Arsenal.”
American businessman, Stan Kroenkewho is worth $8bn is the sole owner of Arsenal club. He bought Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov’s 30 percent stake in August in a deal that valued the club at about £1.8bn. Kroenke is also the owner of National Football League’s Los Angeles Rams.
When talking about the majority shareholders in August, Dangote said: “If they get the right offer, I’m sure they would walk away.
“Someone will give them an offer that will make them seriously consider walking away.
“And when we finish the refinery, I think we will be in a position to do that.”