Since July 30 (officially since September 9), Kylian Mbappé has been the new owner of Stade Malherbe in Caen, via his family investment fund called Coalition Capital. The Real Madrid center forward has only a tenuous link with the Norman club, a tournament played when he was 14 years old. But the French international saw it as an exciting challenge. And the investment of €18 million is ultimately little on the scale of his income and the sum he continues to claim from Paris SG (€55 million gross in arrears).
Beckham, Ronaldo, Piqué, Ibrahimovic…
Kylian Mbappé is not the only active player to have offered himself a club. But his example ultimately has no equivalent. David Beckham is the first name that comes to mind, except that the Englishman created a franchise in the United States for this: Inter Miami, born in 2020. Before him, Ronaldo took shares in Valladolid (Spain ), shares that he would like to sell today, after having done the same with Cruzeiro in Brazil. Gérard Pique bought Andorra FC in 2018, with little success so far. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been co-owner of Hammarby, a Swedish first division club, since November 2019.
Mané, Koulibaly, Evra, Keller…
Closer to home, and quite curiously, Sadio Mané became in October 2023 the majority shareholder of Bourges Foot 18, currently 5th in his group (also Breton) of N2. For his part, N’Golo Kanté took over Royal Excelsior Virton in June 2023, in Belgian D3, while Senegalese defender Kalidou Koulibaly became the owner of CS Sedan-Ardennes in May, which fell to Regional 2 after its liquidation. Another example, that of Patrice Evra who is the face of the American investment fund MYFC, owner of Estrela da Amadora, promoted to Portuguese D1 in June 2023.
Before them, in 2012, Marc Keller took over RC Strasbourg in CFA 2. He sold it in June 2023 to the American consortium Blueco for around €45 million, while remaining the president of his favorite club.
Caen, its audience, its reputation…
Kylian Mbappé, 80% owner of the Caen club, was personally involved in this adventure and not only on his social networks. He thus convinced Yann M’Vila to get involved. He appointed a trusted man as president, Ziad Hammoud, and as technical director, Gérard Prêcheur, the former coach of PSG women’s. The former Parisian, before launching, carefully analyzed the potential of the Norman club, third best attendance in Ligue 2 last year (16,111 spectators on average). Of course, there is also the history of “Malherbe” which spent 18 seasons in Ligue 1. Without forgetting the reputation as a training club for SM Caen, finalist of the Gambardella Cup in 2022.
Some will say that he is playing football manager with real money. But his knowledge of the environment is much greater than that of current owners of Ligue 1 clubs (John Textor in Lyon, Frank McCourt in Marseille, etc.) or of institutions that have become monuments in danger, such as the Girondins de Bordeaux, scuttled by Gérard Lopez . After a complicated start to the season, the team led by Nicolas Seube recorded its second victory in a row, Tuesday evening, against Amiens (2-1). “Good” maintenance, or even better, now stands as the first floor of the Mbappé project.
