(Paris) With his departure to Real Madrid confirmed, the captain of the French team Kylian Mbappé is now the new majority shareholder of Stade Malherbe de Caen, becoming one of the first players still active to become the owner of a club.
The arrival of the 2018 world champion and 2022 vice-world champion will change the dimension of SM Caen, after long months of negotiations and searching for a buyer.
Via the Coalition Capital investment fund of the Interconnected Ventures company, the Bondynois bought back the shares of the American investment fund Oaktree, up to 80%.
Now a player and club owner, the new Real Madrid striker did not necessarily choose Stade Malherbe at random: when he was younger, he almost signed there before signing for AS Monaco.
This dual role as player-owner is a bit of an earthquake in the world of football. Even if he is not the first professional player to become a club owner, he is one of the first active players to do so.
Before him, David Beckham, retired, founded Inter Miami in 2018, a club of which he is co-owner and president. The Brazilian Ronaldo had also bought the Cruzeiro club in Brazil, before selling his shares.
At Stade Malherbe, the current chairman of the supervisory board, Pierre-Antoine Capton, chairman of the board of directors of Mediawan – a French heavyweight in European audiovisual production – remains a minority shareholder (20%), the press release stated. The agreement was concluded on Tuesday evening.
The amount of the transaction is not yet officially known, but several media outlets including L‘Team And The Parisian mention a sum of between 15 and 20 million euros.
The parties will now validate the process with the competent authorities, in particular before the National Management Control Directorate (DNCG) of the LFP.
This change in shareholders will result in the departure of the club’s president, Olivier Pickeu.
And it was Ziad Hammoud, a close friend of the player and former director of strategy at beIN Media Group, who took over as president of the Normandy club, which finished 6the of Ligue 2 last season.
“What pride”
The man who is often seen alongside the star’s family has been the CEO of Mbappé’s image company, Interconnected Ventures, for several months.
“As the main investor in this project, we are very enthusiastic about continuing the development of Stade Malherbe Caen, alongside PAC Invest,” said Ziad Hammoud, quoted in the press release, while adding: “we are determined to create an environment where young talents can flourish and where the club can defend its identity with strength and ambition.”
For the second shareholder, producer and business leader Pierre-Antoine Capton quoted in the press release, “it is an incredible opportunity for Stade Malherbe Caen to be able to count on Coalition Capital for its development”, thanking Mbappé’s investment fund “for their trust and I am very happy to be able to share this new cycle for the club with them”.
This acquisition “will allow Stade Malherbe Caen to benefit from additional strategic resources to strengthen its sports policy, modernize its infrastructure and develop innovative projects,” the press release insists.
“We must believe that these few moments spent in Caen in his youth have marked him! What pride to see a champion like @KMbappe investing in @SMCaen”, reacted the mayor of Caen, Aristide Olivier.