Donald Trump once came close to buying British soccer club Rangers but decided to back out when he saw the extent of the team’s financial crisis.
Scottish soccer heavyweights Rangers were in desperate need of a buyer in 2012 following a financial collapse, which led to their administration, liquidation and relegation. There were rumors of several high-profile names being interested in saving the struggling club, who play at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow.
One of those was none other than Donald J. Trump, who has now secured a second term in office with 277 Electoral College votes in the 2024 Presidential Election. Trump’s ties to Scotland are well known, as his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was born in Ross-shire, in the Scottish Highlands.
In 2012, Trump was in the process of launching his first Scottish golf course near Aberdeen. The billionaire business magnate possessed little experience with sports companies, having only had a brief spell running the football franchise the New Jersey Generals, who played in the short-lived US Football League in the mid-1980s.
Still, he took a “serious” interest in Rangers’ situation with a plan to bail out the club. Given his habit of naming his businesses after himself, it’s not entirely implausible that Rangers’ home could have been renamed, perhaps to the ‘Trump Ibrox’.
But even despite his deep pockets and connections to the country, Rangers’ dire financial situation proved too much of a hurdle for even Trump. A source close to the President-elect told the Press and Journal: “We looked seriously and walked away.
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“It just did not make sense to us, although they are a great club. We hope someone steps in and builds the team again.”
While on the campaign trail ahead of his first term as US president in 2015, Trump was rumoured to be considering a purchase of Colombian soccer giants Atletico Nacional, famous for having once been owned by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. But his political ambitions soon took centre stage, and nothing materialized.
With the success of his recent presidential campaign, Trump is unlikely to be paying much attention to Rangers’ current struggles, with the club operating without a permanent chairman, chief executive and a ‘head of football operations’. It was revealed recently that they made a staggering net loss of £17.2million ($22.1m) last season.
Source: https://www.themirror.com/sport/soccer/donald-trump-rangers-pablo-escobar-790439
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