Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote has revealed his regret of not purchasing English football giants Arsenal Football Club when he had the chance to in 2021.
The wealthy businessman’s net worth had risen by $2.3 billion in 2021, totaling his overall wealth to $20.3 billion as of that year when he was setting up his oil refinery.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Dangote shared his regrets for not going through with the deal to acquire controlling shares at the club from American billionaire, Stan Kroenke.
“I think that time has passed. The last time we had this interview, I told you that yes, as soon as I finished with the refinery, I am going to try and buy Arsenal.
“But the issue is that everything has gone up. The clubs are all doing well. They are doing extremely well now. At that time [that I wanted to buy] they were not doing very well.”
“I think I don’t have that kind of excess liquidity to go and buy a club for $4 billion and use it for promotional something.
“I would rather do something with the money. What I’ll do, I will continue to be the biggest fan of Arsenal. I watch their games everytime. I will remain a major supporter of Arsenal but I don’t think it makes sense today to buy Arsenal.
“Actually I regret not buying Arsenal before, but you know my money was more needed in completing my project than buying Arsenal. I would have bought it for $2 billion,” he said.
