Nigerian-born former British boxer, Peter Oboh, has called on Aliko Dangote to forget about investing in Arsenal and focus on Nigerian sports instead.
Dangote has made no secret of his desire to buy Arsenal, although some of his critics believe he has no intention of ever trying to own the club and just enjoys seeing his name linked with them.
Whatever the truth, Oboh believes the billionaire should use his money to promote and further Nigerian sports rather than looking to invest it in England and told him as much when he met with him.
Speaking during the summer in a wide-ranging interview with the Finanical Times [£], Dangote, who is worth a reported $14.1billion, believes Arsenal is worth around $2bn (Forbes valued Arsenal at $2.017bn in 2016).
He plans to purchase it as a ‘reward’ for completing his new mega oil refinery that will produce 650,000 barrels a day from the new complex near Lagos.
‘‘I love Arsenal and I will definitely go for it,” he said before telling the journalist that he would get involved in rebuilding the team by “chipping in my own advice.
“When I buy it, I have to bring it up to the expectations of our supporters,” he said.
However, before you go getting yourself excited, you need to remember a few things.
Dangote ranks 100th in the Forbes richlist and his fortune eclipses Arsenal’s owner, Stan Kroenke’s by some €$4bn. That being said, Kroenke has absolutely no intention of selling the club. Why would he? When he purchased his first Arsenal shares (9.9%) he paid ITV £65m although only £42.3m of this was for shares, the remaining £22.7m was reportedly for half of Arsenal Broadband.
9.9% equals approx. 6,220 shares making each one worth around £6,800 when the market rate at that time was closer to £8,500. If you think this seems strange, you are not alone.
Anyway, Kroenke slowly increased his holding until he was in charge of the club. He now owns it outright, taking it off the stock exchange.