Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote wants to buy Arsenal
Africa’s richest man has admitted that he still wants to buy Arsenal, despite failing with a bid to buy the club in 2010.
Hailing from Kano, northern Nigeria, the 58-year-old businessman is Africa’s richest man having amassed a fortune of $15.6 billion (£10.3bn), according to Forbes.
His wealth, which puts him at number 67 in a world ranking of billionaires, is entirely of his own making.
“I still hope, one day at the right price, that I’ll buy the team,” Dangote told Bloomberg. “I might buy it, not at a ridiculous price but a price that the owners won’t want to resist. I know my strategy.”
Arsenal are currently valued at just shy of £1bn, £988m, and look on course to finish in second in the Premier League this season.
“We have $16 billion worth of investments in the next few years,” he said. “Right now I want to take my own business to a certain level. Once I finish on that trajectory, then maybe.”
Arsenal has won 13 domestic league championships and is currently third in the Premier League this season.
Dangote says that the team needs a “new direction,” adding that manager Arsene Wenger “needs to change his style a bit.”
If a deal ever did go through, Dangote would become the first African owner of a Premier League club.
