NBA All-Star Russell Westbrook is the latest big-name athlete to join the 49ers Enterprises-led consortium hoping to take full control of Leeds United.
Westbrook, 34, follows golfers Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas in becoming minor stakeholders in the Whites.
The LA Clippers point guard – listed as the world’s 14th highest-paid athlete
– was the NBA’s most valuable player in 2017 and is a nine-time All-Star.
Joint Leeds owners 49ers Enterprises first invested in the club in 2018.
Their stake grew from 15% to 44%, before agreeing a deal to buy the controlling stake of Andrea Radrizzani in the Championship club – the takeover, though, has not yet been ratified by the English Football League.
“I was lucky enough to have conversations with some of the partners in this deal, who already have ownership, the 49ers,” Westbrook said at a sports and entertainment summit held by Sportico.
“So I was lucky enough to talk through that with friends, talking with my business partner as well about different things and having conversations, figuring out if this was the right deal and how we could make it different.”
A £400m agreement for 49ers Enterprises – the financial arm of NFL franchise San Francisco 49ers – to take over Leeds from chairman Radrizzani was reached before their Premier League relegation, but a new £170m deal was reached after they went down.
