Who is Todd Boehly Chelsea's shortlisted buyer and how did he make his money?

Due to the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich decided to sell Chelsea because he understands that leaving the helm is the best thing for the future of the club. One of the candidates to buy the English team is billionaire Todd Boehly, who has a long history in the sport.

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A U.S. citizen and son of Germans, Boehly owns 20 percent of the Los Angeles Dodgers, one of the most traditional teams in world baseball, as well as the Los Angeles Sparks, winner of three WNBA titles, the U.S. women's basketball league. It also bought shares in the Los Angeles Lakers, the biggest NBA champion alongside the Boston Celtics in 2021.

Boehly's interest in Chelsea is nothing new. In 2019, the American tried to buy the team, but the proposal was not enough to convince Abramovich to sell it. The Russian then asked for £3 billion ($3.968 billion), but the offer did not come close. This time, however, Abramovich may have greater urgency in negotiating.

If he succeeds in taking over the reigning European and world champions this time around, Boehly will have entered the world of soccer. He will also be involved with three of the world's biggest teams according to an annual survey by Forbes magazine, with the Lakers ranked seventh, the Dodgers 16th, and Chelsea 25th. Money is no object there.

How did Boehly make his fortune?

At 46 years of age, the multimillionaire has a fortune estimated at 6.2 billion dollars, thanks to Eldridge Industries, a company that owns dozens of brands in different areas of activity. The holding company controls or has stakes in insurance, technology, media, mobility, services, and real estate companies.

A 1997 finance graduate of W&M College in Virginia, Boehly began his career working at Citibank and Credit Suisse. In 2001, he joined Guggenheim Partners, a global investment firm founded two years earlier, where he started its credit, investment banking, asset management, and financial markets business.

From there, Guggenheim Partners grew to control more than $300 billion in assets today. Boehly became chairman of the company until 2015 when he purchased some of the assets he acquired before Guggenheim and founded Eldridge Industries along with some partners.

The 46-year-old billionaire is currently chairman and CEO of Eldridge and also serves as interim executive director of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, an organization of foreign media journalists working in the United States covering the U.S. film and television industry.

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