Roman Abramovich looks to have stolen a march on Liverpool owners FSG in a bid to acquire Brazilian club Vasco da Gama.
Chelsea’s owner has pumped a huge amount of money into the west London club, and has overseen five Premier League and two Champions League titles in his 15-year reign at the club
According to journalist Jorge Nicola (via Sport Witness), the billionaire is heading a Russian group as one of 20 interested parties looking to acquire Vasco de Gama.
The report claims talks are stepping up and Vasco president Jorge Salgada is set to travel to Europe for further negotiations with the group.
FSG have been on the lookout for a similar acquisition for several months, and most recently fell short in their bid to buy Cruzeiro, having previously made a proposal according to their former superintendent Aloisio Vasoncellos.
Vasoncellos said: “The negotiation is international. There will be proposals from all sides.
“I support the proposal of the Bank of Boston, which has links with XP (Investments). They own Liverpool (England), which is the best organized and managed football club in Europe. He was even world champion and later runner-up in the world.
“This day marks this division, between the stage of disgrace, which has passed, fortunately, and the stage of grace, which looks forward.
“With a horizon, I believe, strong. Cruzeiro has assets, it has 10 million fans.”
But it was former Brazil striker Ronaldo who ended up buying the club, leaving FSG to continue their search.
Speaking after his company, Tara Sports, Ronaldo’s company had concluded the deal, the former Real Madrid and Barcelona star said: “I am so happy to have concluded this operation,” before adding that intends to “give back to Cruzeiro and take them where they deserve to be..
He continued: “We have a lot of hard to work to do. There’s nothing to celebrate yet but we bring a lot of hard work and the ambition to make Cruzeiro great again.”
