Once refused, Dangote still guns for Arsenal

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, said he still wants to buy English Premier League soccer team Arsenal even after he was rebuffed by its owners in 2010.

Nigeria’s Dangote, an Arsenal fan worth $15.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, discussed buying a stake in the club five years ago before talks with the owners fell through, he said. Since then his wealth has grown more than sevenfold.

“I still hope, one day at the right price, that I’ll buy the team,” Dangote, 58, said in an interview as he traveled on a plane owned by one of his companies between the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and the Nigerian commercial hub of Lagos recently. “I might buy it, not at a ridiculous price but a price that the owners won’t want to resist. I know my strategy.”

Arsenal is one of England’s most successful clubs, having won 13 top flight league titles in the country, the most after Manchester United and Liverpool. Arsenal Holdings Plc., the owner, is valued at 988 million pounds ($1.49 billion).

A successful bid would make Dangote the first African owner of a club in a league where billionaires including Russia’s Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea, and Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, who controls Manchester City, have acquired teams.

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