Chien Lee confirms he wants German Club
The Bundesliga could soon welcome a new donor. The investor Chien Lee confirms to t-online that he wants to join a German professional club. It wouldn't be his first club takeover.
The American entrepreneur Chien Lee wants to "sooner or later" take over a Bundesliga club. He confirmed this in an interview with t-online: "I am closely monitoring the situation in the league because I am extremely interested in investing in German football."
Lee already owns six professional clubs
Lee has made a name for himself as a far-sighted investor in European professional football over the past few years. The fundamental pillars of all clubs that he takes over are the implementation of an offensive game philosophy and the consistent, data-based scouting of young talents. The stumbling traditional French club OGC Nice sensationally reached the Champions League under Lee's leadership with former Bundesliga coach Lucien Favre.
Chien Lee: The US-American celebrated his first notable successes in European football with ex-Bundesliga coach Lucien Favre, among others.
Chien Lee: The US-American celebrated his first notable successes in European football with ex-Bundesliga coach Lucien Favre, among others. (Source: Panoramic / imago images)
In 2019 he sold Nice and made a hefty profit. Since then, his investment company NewCity has owned six clubs: the English second division Barnsley FC, the Swiss second division FC Thun, the Belgian first division KV Oostende, the French second division AS Nancy-Lorraine, the Danish second division Esbjerg fB and the Dutch second division FC Den Bosch.
He also shared his love for the German elite league, as Lee himself puts it, with the outgoing DFL managing director Christian Seifert - and told him the decisive aspect for his particular interest: "I said to him: 'We're playing high with our clubs Pressing - just like you do in the Bundesliga. That's German football! '"
That's what investor Lee thinks of the German 50 + 1 rule
The 50 + 1 rule that applies in German football, according to which the absolute majority of the shares must be with the parent club, does not deter Lee from investing. "The rules are the rules - and they apply to me too," he explains. In any case, he is not interested in "how large the percentage of my shares is."
It is much more important that I meet a partner on site who wants to pursue this long-term project with me - be it a shareholder who has already invested before me or the club management who wants to consolidate the club financially and promote it in terms of sport. We can agree on a common philosophy, I am satisfied - no matter how many voting rights I then have, "says Lee.
