Jude Bellingham is the new co-owner and minority partner of a cricket club, specifically the Birmingham Phoenix. It’s no coincidence that he chose that particular club: the Phoenix represent the city where the Real Madrid midfielder was born, who has always expressed a strong connection to his roots and the entire sports universe of Birmingham – starting with City, the team he grew up with and continues to have a great relationship with. In fact, Bellingham has shared that his investment – amounting to about one million euros for acquiring just under 2% of the shares – was made because “I feel I owe a lot to my city and wanted to do something to help local cricket.”
The chosen sport is also not entirely random: while growing up as a great footballing prospect, Bellingham also played cricket, specifically at the Hagley Cricket Club. Then there are the commercial aspects: the Birmingham Phoenix are part of The Hundred, a league that promises to completely revolutionize the world of cricket, and they are within the galaxy of the Knighthead Capital group, which is linked to the ownership of Birmingham City and thus also to Tom Brady, NFL legend and a key figure in the club’s revival after years in the lower leagues. Therefore, it can be said that there were and are all the prerequisites – emotional, and not only – for a successful operation. This was also confirmed by a sports business expert interviewed by Diário As: “When footballers or athletes in general decide to invest in a club, they do so for reasons that go beyond the connections they feel they have. Future profits are assessed in different terms, including growth potential: at the moment, football and sports have only reached 40% of the value they can aspire to.”
And this is why so many footballers – including, just to name a few heavyweights, Leo Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric – have transformed into sports entrepreneurs even before retiring. In fact, in the specific case – that of Jude Bellingham – the inspiration came from within, namely from his teammates at Real Madrid: Kylian Mbappé is the owner of Caen (French third division), Vinícius Júnior leads a group that has acquired 80% of Alverca (Portuguese first division), Thibault Courtois is one of the athletes who have invested in Le Mans (French second division). In short, Bellingham is just the latest arrival in a club that is no longer so exclusive, but tells a trend that has now become established. He is different only because he has started looking towards cricket, but perhaps it is just a matter of time before he also becomes interested in a football club.