The partnership between Gary Neville and Mark Goldbridge has stunned football fans across the country
Mark Goldbridge
Mark Goldbridge's feud with Gary Neville has been put to bed after their partnership(Image: YouTube/The United Stand)
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Gary Neville's desire to dominate the football landscape has led him to ink a seven-figure deal with Mark Goldbridge, despite previously falling out with the YouTuber. The Manchester United icon's company, The Overlap, has purchased the Goldbridge's channels, The United Stand and That's Football.
The 51-year-old has transformed into a business mogul since his retirement from football in 2011 with one of his crowning entrepreneurial successes being The Overlap. The media firm is best known for its weekly podcast Stick to Football, starring Neville, Roy Keane, Jamie Carragher, Ian Wright and Jill Scott.
Regularly hitting over 1million views, the company sold a majority stake to media conglomerate Global earlier this year with Neville seeking to stamp his authority as the leading content creation platform on all things football.
A deal to purchase Goldbridge's YouTube channels - which have a combined total of 3.7m subscribers - was announced on Tuesday morning.
Discussing the need to expand their coverage following the sacking of Ruben Amorim in January, Neville revealed his plans to develop the two platforms into the leading channels for Manchester United and general football content.
He said: "We are building what we believe will become one of the most exciting Independent football communities in the world – one that gives fans direct, personality-led content.
"The United Stand and That’s Football are two of the best-known football channels on YouTube, and our intention is to develop them into the most compelling Manchester United and football news channels in the market."
Gary Neville speaking on his podcast
Gary Neville has partnered up with Mark Goldbridge despite their past beef(Image: Stick to Football)
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Goldbridge - whose real name is Brent Di Cesare - has previously feuded with Neville who insisted the content creator must remain critical of him in the wake of their reported seven-figure deal. "Mark has criticised me more than most, but we don’t have to agree," Neville told Broadcast Sport.
"He knows what he does and he’s got to carry on criticising me. That’s how the world works." The former England defender has been guilty of throwing shade at Goldbridge himself, previously criticising "those bloody YouTubers". Neville was once asked whether he'd invite Goldbridge on to The Overlap, as he later responded: "I think I said ‘no”, on Twitter [now X].
"Someone will probably find that. And he’s criticised me, quite heavily, in the last few years for my opinions on Manchester United. To be fair, we don’t hold grudges between us. We don’t take ourselves too seriously."
Mark Goldbridge speaks
Mark Goldbridge has inked a seven-figure deal to sell his YouTube channels to the Manchester United icon(Image: YouTube/The United Stand)
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Teasing The Overlap's plan further their dominance across the podcasting space, Neville explained: "[We] need to go into discussions with other channels, but we’re not in a rush. We’ll wait for the right opportunities in the next six, 12, 18 months. I don’t think of it as a media empire."
Opening up about the next stage of his content creation development, Goldbridge said: "I’ve spent the last 10 years building The United Stand for Manchester United fans and That’s Football for all fans, and I’m prouder of that than anything I’ve ever done.
"This deal is about what comes next. The Overlap has the ambition, the credibility, and the resources to help me take what I do to the next level."