More and more athletes, and footballers in particular, are taking stakes in clubs and becoming owners themselves. Some of the most recent examples include Lionel Messi, now the majority shareholder of Cornellà; Thibaut Courtois, with Le Mans, newly promoted to Ligue 1, and Genk; and Vinicius, with Alverca. Now there is another footballer-owned club in Portugal. Estrela Amadora, based in the northern outskirts of Lisbon and playing in the Primeira Liga, is now controlled by a consortium that includes Mats Hummels, who recently retired from professional football; Yann Sommer, who has just moved from Inter to Club Brugge; Thomas Müller, now with Vancouver Whitecaps in MLS; and Lucas Hernández, who remains under contract with Paris Saint-Germain. The deal was announced by the Portuguese club itself and, according to A Bola, the group has acquired 90 per cent of the SAD, the company that runs the team, for close to €40 million. The four players are not so much looking to put a large amount of money into the club as to help shape its growth in a strategic role.
The deal was facilitated by Johannes Mösmang, a former Bayern Munich executive who knows all four players personally. He has been appointed president under the new ownership, leaving his role at the Bavarian club after around ten years. “Estrela Amadora,” Mösmang said, “is a club rich in tradition, with a unique identity and a passionate community. It also has something quite distinctive: its own stadium. We are extremely motivated to begin this new chapter and, with discipline and sustainability, build a project that the supporters, the community and everyone at Estrela can be proud of.”
The investment comes after years of rebuilding. Estrela Amadora went through a particularly difficult period, eventually declaring bankruptcy in 2011. For a while, only the youth academy remained active. Then, in 2018, a senior team was re-established, starting again in the lowest tier of Portuguese football. The climb was remarkably quick. In 2020, Estrela merged with Sintra, then playing in the third division, and returned to that level. From there, the club kept moving up, making it back to the top flight within a few years. Estrela Amadora has been back in the Primeira Liga since 2023. Now, with four high-profile names from European football among its new owners, the club is entering another phase of its history.