Todd Boehly
Todd Boehly is no longer the chairman of Chelsea Football Club, but he is already planning his next move and he has the backing of US President Donald Trump.
The American billionaire sold his stakes in the Stamford Bridge outfit last week, although he had slowly been stepping back from the day-to-day running of the club long before that.
It brought to an end a four-year involvement in west London, with Boehly leading a consortium with the Clearlake Capital group to buy the club from Roman Abramovich in a £4.25billion deal in 2022.
And now, having departed the Blues, Boehly is targeting another Russian-owned company for his next investment move.
According to the Financial Times, Boehly has "secured the backing of the US government and Gulf power brokers with ties to the Trump family to bid for the international assets of Lukoil".
And that Trump backing could prove crucial in the bid to takeover the Russian oil company business, who were put up for sale last year following US sanctions.
It had looked as if US private equity group Carlyle would complete a takeover of Lukoil after agreeing to buy the assets in January, but the deal stalled as it awaited final approval.
Boehly has friends in the White House when it comes to a Lukoil takover
REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
And now Boehly has stepped in and the former Chelsea owner has a number of people connected to the White House in his corner.
The US International Development Finance Corporation and Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates’ national security adviser and brother of its president are in the Boehly-led consortium, while the billionaire Syrian-Qatari Al-Khayyat family, who have worked closely with the White House and Trump family members on property and energy projects, is also part of the consortium.
Speaking about Boehly's departure from Chelsea, GIVEMESPORT's senior football correspondent Ben Jacobs said: "Boehly had come in, he was the face of the consortium, he was the chairman, he was the sporting director, and from day one, Behdad Eghbali and Jose E Feliciano on the Clearlake side were always very invested and hands-on as well.
"Boehly did an interview about a year ago where he said if they can't get on the same page, there may be a natural parting of ways.
But I think in essence, Boehly's bigger picture was framed around London and Chelsea, property and Chelsea, brand and Chelsea, and to an extent, multi-sport and Chelsea. And Clearlake are a bit more framed around football, around Blueco, around Chelsea, and around multi-club.
"So there were some professional points of difference, and Boehly had wanted initially for about £3.5billion, about a billion profit at the time, two years ago, to buy out Clearlake Capital, but it was never possible because Clearlake made it clear they're invested in Chelsea, they didn't want to sell.
"So back then it was status quo or Clearlake buying out Boehly and Boehly realised that very quickly, and now we're in a situation where he's gone."