Chelsea potential ownership insight: Stephen Pagliuca

Over the last few days, The Raine Group has narrowed down its list of potential buyers for the new owners of Chelsea Football Club to just four. Progress is being made slowly, but surely this is a task that needs to be dealt with swiftly and intelligently at the same time. The New York-based bank has the future of the Blues at its fingertips. The return of Roman Abramovich as the owner once again seems to be unlikely at this point due to the aggression of the British government toward a man who has been working towards peace, not war. Nevertheless, this decision that will shape Chelsea for the foreseeable future is near its end. It’s time to take a look at one of the possible new owners, American investor Stephen Pagliuca.

Pagliuca is an American private equity investor and the current co-chairman at Bain Capital. He and Joshua Bekenstein, as Harvard business graduates, have led the Boston-based company to acquire and invest in some of the biggest companies around the world. Bain Capital has offices in North America, Asia and even Europe. Pagliuca is a recent co-owner of one of the biggest clubs in Italy, Atalanta in Serie A. The group led by Pagliuca bought 55% of the stake in Atalanta back in February. While he is new to the concept of owning a football club, Pagliuca must have a love for the game for the money he is spending for his stake. Before making the decision to buy a stake in the club from Bergamo, Pagliuca was involved in a bid that fell through for Boston to host the 2024 Olympic Games.

Get to know Stephen Pagluica, one of the investors in the running to buy Chelsea

Despite all of the aforementioned experience in and around sports, Pagliuca is probably most well-known for being the co-owner of one of the most storied teams in the NBA, the Boston Celtics. Since he and Wyc Grousbeck bought the Celtics in 2002, Boston has made the playoffs 17 times, even winning a championship in 2008 and ending a 22-year drought. Pagliuca is very much a behind-the-scenes type of person compared to Grousbeck, which makes sense given why his bid is being kept so close to the chest.

There are no public details about whether or not there is anyone else that will be joining Pagliuca in his bid to buy Chelsea. Out of all of the bids left in the competition, there is little information about Pagliuca and if there will be any movement in terms of increasing the bid at all if it comes to that. While Pagliuca may not have the Premier League connections that Sir Martin Broughton has made throughout his time with Liverpool, he has a community-driven mentality that Chelsea without a doubt desires. He is the chairman of many great organizations, including the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation, whose mission is to extend a helping hand to children in need around the community in Massachusetts.

Pagliuca has been trying to get into the European market for quite some time, and after finalizing the deal with Atalanta, his attention now turns to Chelsea. The former Duke graduate may be quiet in his demeanor publicly, but he has been nothing but world class since joining arguably the greatest franchise in NBA history. He took the Celtics to the pinnacle of the league after years of drama and losing following the 1980s.

While there is not a lot currently known about Pagliuca and his actual bid value, he has made the final four shortlist of remaining candidates, and there has to be a reason for that. His position as one of the leaders in a global private investment firm makes him fit to deal with the business and economic side of owning a club in Europe. Heading into the final stages of The Raine Group making the decision within the next couple of weeks, Pagliuca could make a potential perfect lead owner for one of the biggest clubs in Europe with his selfless personality, experience and willingness to make the team he invests in as good as it can be.

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