Who are the owners of Chelsea, the club interested in investing in Argentina according to Milei

In an interview released on Tuesday evening, the 26th, Javier Milei said a phrase that caused a stir in the Argentine football scene. The president spoke about the inclusion of sports joint-stock companies in the DNU presented by the executive and noted in passing: “As soon as the decree came out, Chelsea was interested in investing in Argentina.”

“I don’t need to say that Argentina is the birthplace of crack. As a business, there is a lot to do with the Argentine case. Suddenly it could represent investments of more than a billion dollars in a very short-term market of time”, said the president to defend the decree, in dialogue with LN+.

The name of the club that Milei underlined is not just any one. It is one of the heaviest wallets in the Premier League, which in the last year and a half has been spending millions on players and managers to remain among the elite of world football.

Until February 2022, Chelsea was the club of Roman Abramovich, the billionaire whose fortune is estimated at $9 billion. The one born in Saratov 57 years ago landed in English football in 2003 with his fortune made in the oil fields and through successes and mistakes managed to transform a small London team into a serious world contender.

He won the Premier League in 2005 and it was his second First Division title after 50 years, which was followed by four more titles: 2006, 2010, 2015, 2017. In the midst of that golden era, he reached the record for the greatest number of games without losing at home, in the legendary Stanford Bridge stadium: 86 games (62 wins and 24 draws, from 21 February 2004 to 26 October 2008.

But the joys also went beyond the limits of the British island: under Abramovich’s legacy, Chelsea won two Champions Leagues (2012 and 2021), two Europa Leagues (2013 and 2019) and the 2021 Club World Cup, played in February 2022.

A few days after that conquest in the Club World Cup, beating Palmeiras in the final, the world woke up early with news that would change the geopolitical map of the world and the life of the team in the blue shirt: February 24, 2022 Russian troops invaded ‘Ukraine, starting a war that still persists.

Putin’s decision ended up dragging with it what in England were called the “Russian oligarchs”, businessmen with direct links to Moscow, who financed the actions of the Soviet regime. It took Abramovich ten days to sell his London house and part ways with Chelsea, which passed into the hands of a trust that began looking for a new owner.

In this context, the arrival of the American Todd Boehly took place, who at the helm of the BlueCo investment group and after the approval of the British government, became the new owner of Chelsea in May 2022 in exchange for 4,971 million dollars. It is the same company that owns Racing de Strasbourg, at the center of the French Ligue 1 table.

Boehly, 50, is also a rich man: he has a fortune valued at 4.5 billion dollars according to Forbes. And he had already tried to take over Chelsea in 2018 but his offer of 2.5 billion dollars was not enough. After Abramovich’s departure, he doubled his offer thanks to his union with the Clearlake Capital investment fund, the Swiss Hansjörg Wyss and Mark Walter, his partner in two other immense sports franchises in the United States and around the world, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Lakers.

If money doesn’t bring happiness, much less does it in football. The Boehly era has not yet begun at Chelsea, with very little results in sporting terms. “I don’t recognize my club,” summed up Didier Drogba, the team’s former star under Abramovich.

In its first season under new ownership, Chelsea invested more than $700 million in reinforcements but ended up eliminated from every competition they played in and finished 11th in the Premier League, excluding all cup competitions in this cycle. One of the record purchases was that of Enzo Fernández, in January, for 100 million dollars and after beating him at the World Cup in Qatar. The former River, Defensa y Justicia and Benfica player couldn’t do much in a broken, chaotic and directionless team.

The other Argentine to join Chelsea this season is Mauricio Pochettino, with the mission of reorienting a team that was changing managers in a sign of a lack of leadership. Tuchel, champion of the 2021 Champions League, was sent off in the group stage of the 2022 edition. The German was followed by Graham Potter and Frank Lampard, all wearing the red shirt.

Despite showing signs of greater calm and improvement, the negative period of the manager born in Murphy, Santa Fe, continues, in 11th place in the Premier League, eight points from the Europa League and fourteen chances of playing in the Champions League, one chimera at this time of the year when half the competition has been played.

No one can change Chelsea’s course, not even the Ecuadorian Moisés Caicedo, who joined the Italian team for 133 million euros, becoming the most expensive transfer in the history of the Premier League. A business that is currently losing money, and in which American tycoons seem intent on looking for new alternatives.