Everyone knows who LeBron James is and every Liverpool fan knows he owns a minority stake of the club. What most fans don’t know is that James isn’t the only star athlete literally invested in a football club.

Since James’s purchase of the team, it’s been a positive trend for LFC and they can be found as a popular bet among sportsbooks. These sportsbooks offer bonuses that let fans potentially bet on LFC for free.

Fans can profit the same way James has profited off LFC’s success. His 2% stake, valued at $6.5 million USD at the time of his purchase in 2011, is now reported to be around $43.6 million – almost seven times its original value.

James may have invested into one of the most acclaimed football clubs, but he also inspired other star players to follow his lead (although he isn’t the first pro athlete to purchase a club).

Let’s look at five sports stars of recent years who have purchased a football club as their own either as a co-owner or as a minority stake.

James Harden

The 2018 NBA Most Valuable Player took a cue from James and purchased not one, but two stakes from two Houston-based football teams: the Dynamo of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the Dash of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).

Harden purchased a minority stake in the ownership group that owns both the Dynamo and the Dash. He purchased a 5% stake with the teams alluding to the franchise’s valuation at around $475 million USD.

The Dynamo has been to four MLS Cup Finals and has won two: back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007. The Dash joined the NWSL in 2014 and have yet to qualify for the playoffs.

David Beckham

Beckham doesn’t just own one football club. He owns two. The former English football star co-owns Salford City, a League Two club originally founded as the Salford Central Mission.

His latest venture is with the MLS where he is both the president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF, the league’s latest expansion team. Beckham was already in talks to buy an expansion team back in 2007.

Inter Miami played its first season in 2020 finishing with 7 wins, 13 losses, and 3 draws. It qualified for the play-in round to the playoffs but lost to Nashville SC.

Ronaldo

The Brazilian football legend continues to add to his eclectic resume as he became the majority owner of Real Valladolid, a La Liga team, in September 2018 when he purchased 51% of the club’s shares.

Ronaldo now owns 82% of the club and also operates as the chairman of the Board of Directors. Unlike him however, the club has not found much success and holds a single trophy of significance: the defunct Copa de la Liga in 1984.

The club is still considered to be the most successful in Castile and Leon by its history with 44 seasons in the First Division.

Kevin Durant

He’s long been mentioned alongside James as one of the greatest NBA players of today and now “KD” is a proud owner of the MLS’s Philadelphia Union.

Durant finalized a 5% ownership stake of the club with an option to purchase another 5%. Details of the deal weren’t revealed although Statista estimates the Union to be worth around $240 million USD.

The Union was founded in 2008 and is primarily owned by Keystone Sports & Entertainment with Jay Sugarman, the CEO of a leading real estate company, serving as majority owner and chairman of the club.

Didier Drogba 

Drogba has won countless titles in his heyday as a player and he’s adding one more: co-owner. The African great became a co-owner (and player) of the United Soccer League’s Phoenix Rising FC (PRFC) in 2017.

Joining Drogba will be a motley crew of owners that include the likes of baseball player Brandon McCarthy and music artists Pete Wentz of Fallout Boy, and Diplo.

The club was founded in 2014 as the Arizona United SC. It won the USL Championship in 2019 and finished as a runner-up in 2020. It has bid to be a part of the MLS.