{"id":41512,"date":"2025-08-03T19:11:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T19:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/41512\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T19:11:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T19:11:22","slug":"novak-djokovic-joins-felipe-massa-and-kevin-magnussen-as-investors-in-french-ligue-2-side-le-mans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/41512\/","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic joins Felipe Massa and Kevin Magnussen as investors in French Ligue 2 side Le Mans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic<\/a> has joined racing drivers Felipe Massa and Kevin Magnussen as new investors in French Ligue 2 side Le Mans. <\/p>\n

This main investment in the club is headed up by Oakberry CEO Georgios Frangulis, the partner of world No. 1 tennis player Aryna Sabalenka, alongside Brazilian investment firm OutField.<\/p>\n

“Le Mans FC has a strong connection with motorsport, and when my good friend and partner at Oakberry, Georgios Frangulis, presented the project to me, I wanted to be a part of it – especially alongside people I deeply respect, like Djokovic, who needs no introduction, and Magnussen, with whom I shared many years in Formula 1.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s undeniably a great opportunity, taking advantage of the momentum of French football, the reigning Champions League champion, which is currently attracting significant investment.”<\/p>\n

Frangulis added: “We want to help grow the city\u2019s brand and sporting heritage. Le Mans has a unique name in world sport, and the sense of belonging the club can offer makes this project exceptional. Novak, Felipe, and Kevin understand this better than anyone, and that\u2019s why they\u2019re so excited.”<\/p>\n

Thierry Gomez, president and owner of Le Mans FC, explained: “We have built a solid foundation for the club. This new partnership gives us the means to grow responsibly. Our immediate priority: invest in our infrastructure and create the conditions for a new training centre approved by the DTN, in order to once again become a national reference in training in the medium term.”<\/p>\n

The investment from 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic, Massa and Magnussen is the latest example of sports stars investing in football clubs.<\/p>\n

Other well-known examples include David Beckham’s co-ownership of Major League Soccer side Inter Miami.<\/p>\n

In England, legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady is a minority shareholder of Championship side Birmingham City.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, fellow former NFL player JJ Watt also holds minority ownership of newly-promoted Premier League side, Burnley.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Ronaldo Nazario is the majority owner of Spanish side Real Valladolid and NBA great LeBron James took a minority stake in Liverpool.<\/p>\n

Stream the Premier League, Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s FA Cup, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League and more on TNT Sports and discovery+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic has joined racing drivers Felipe Massa and Kevin Magnussen as new investors in French Ligue 2…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[218,23099,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-41512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-le-mans-fc","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}