Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles FC have added Grasshopper Club Zurich to their growing network of clubs, buying a 90 per cent stake in the Swiss outfit from Hong Kong-based Champion Union.
The Chinese company, which is owned by Jenny Wang, the wife of Fosun International boss Guo Guangchang, has been trying to sell the team, who are better known outside Switzerland as Grasshoppers, for over a year.
The deal brings an end to the club’s partnership with Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers, who are owned Fosun, a sprawling Chinese conglomerate.
Injury cut short the loan spell of Wolves’ Nigel Lonwijk in Zurich late last year and teammate Theo Corbeanu is likely to return, too. Former player and Wolves loan manager Matt Jackson appears to be out of a job, too, as he has been replaced as president at Grasshoppers by LAFC chief operating and chief financial officer Stacy Johns.
For LAFC, this latest move means they now own Switzerland’s oldest and most successful team, have a stake in Austrian fourth-tier side FC Wacker Innsbruck and have a joint venture with Bayern Munich.
The latter, called Red & Gold Football, describes itself as an “integrated, unique global platform” for the “promotion of young talents and their responsible accompaniment into professional…
