Demba Ba leads investors – including Eden Hazard – for San Diego team
By George Perry
Chelsea alumni continued their takeover of the American football, er, soccer scene. Demba Ba is the lead investor for San Diego’s new NASL team, joined by Eden Hazard and other Premier League players.
Demba Ba is following Didier Drogba into the ranks of America’s non-MLS football executives. The former Chelsea forward is the lead investor for San Diego’s expansion team in the North American Soccer League. Eden Hazard and Crystal Palace’s Yohan Cabaye are among the investors lining up behind Ba.
As a quick refresher, the NASL is the second-division league in the United States, with all sorts of asterisks around that description given the US’s closed league structure. Drogba’s Phoenix Rising is in the United Soccer League, so he will not face his former teammates. However, the Chelsea-backed club will face ex-Blue Joe Cole, who plays for the NASL’s Tampa Bay Rowdies.
Ba’s move into management and ownership comes shortly after his return to play. Ba broke his leg in one of football’s worst all-time injuries last July with Shanghai Shenhua. He played 25 minutes across two games at the end of this season at Besiktas.
"[San Diego] is a market that’s growing very quick and very good, and we wanted to be a part of it because every time America puts its hands into something they succeed, so we wanted to be a success with them. – Goal.com"
The San Diego team will debut in 2018. Eden Hazard will probably do little more than the ocassional promotional junket with potential investors and sponsors. Ba, particularly as he moves towards retirement, will take a much more active role on behalf of – and perhaps directly working for – the club.
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Chelsea now have former players on the pitch in Major League Soccer, as an owner-player in United Soccer League and as investors in North American Soccer League. American soccer is at least showing itself to be a good business venture, if not yet a destination for players before their mid-30’s.