Joseph DaGrosa has pulled out of talks to buy Southampton and is instead looking to establish one of the 'leading player development platforms in the world' after previously failing to complete a takeover of Newcastle United.
DaGrosa and Peter Kenyon, the former chief executive of Manchester United and Chelsea, previously joined forces in an attempt to buy the Magpies.
ChronicleLive revealed that Kenyon thought Newcastle was the 'the last of the sleeping giants' and the the 67-year-old first discussed the possibility of getting involved with the Magpies with friends when he left Chelsea back in 2009.
Kenyon's attempts to formally put together a consortium first came to light in 2018 and a 46-page document was later sent to potential investors, outlining a proposal to pay Newcastle owner Mike Ashley £125m up front and a further £175m over three years.
However, Kenyon later admitted that 'we just couldn’t quite get that over the line'.
Although the deal fell through, ChronicleLive previously revealed that DaGrosa found Ashley and Justin Barnes, the billionaire's fixer, to be 'extremely professional to deal with', 'appreciated how they handled things' and had 'nothing but good things to say about them'.
DaGrosa, who led a takeover of Bordeaux in 2018, remained keen on purchasing a Premier League club but the Athletic report that the American has now walked away from a bid to buy Southampton after failing to agree a price with majority owner Gao Jisheng.
DaGrosa's Kapital Football Group, which was set up last year, now intends to buy three clubs in Belgium, Portugal and Brazil and then link those teams to six academies in South America and Africa.
“While looking at opportunities in the Premier League and La Liga, we continued to think about the platform and how best to create a return on investment,” DaGrosa told the Athletic.
"What’s become clearer to us is there is a huge opportunity on the player development and trading side, so we have changed direction slightly. Whereas the initial plan was more club-centric, we are now going to be player-focused.
“We want to get a lot of raw talent under our umbrella and become one of the leading player development platforms in the world.”
You can read the full story on the Athletic here.
