Real Madrid icon and Croatia captain, Luka Modric, is stepping into football club ownership, taking a minority stake in English Championship side Swansea City.
The 39-year-old midfield maestro will be joining the club’s current ownership team of Andy Coleman, Brett Cravatt, Nigel Morris, and Jason Cohen, who acquired their stakes from former majority shareholders Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan in November 2023.
This marks Modric’s first foray into club ownership, while he remains an active player at Real Madrid. His current deal with the Spanish giants runs until the end of the 2024-25 season, suggesting he’ll balance his involvement in both playing and club management for now.
Interestingly, Modric once faced Swansea City on the pitch during his time at Tottenham Hotspur, notably going head-to-head with Joe Allen in 2012 during Swansea’s Premier League stint.
Allen, now back for a second spell at the Welsh club, continues to be a key figure at Swansea, while Modric has gone on to become a veteran presence at the Bernabéu.
Swansea City, currently in England’s second-tier, continues to navigate financial challenges.
The club reported a pre-tax loss of £15.2 million for the most recent financial year, a slight improvement on the £17.9 million loss posted the previous year. Their turnover for the year ending June 30, 2024, stood at £21.5 million.
In a statement that accompanied the release of the club’s annual accounts, Swansea City emphasized, “The board acknowledges that whilst the magnitude of the operational loss is a product of the highly competitive environment within the EFL Championship in which the club currently competes, the club will continue to focus on achieving operational efficiencies in order to maximise the resources which can be invested into the first-team squad.”
They added, “The costs of operating a stadium and two training facilities are significant and are growing. In the absence of any immediate prospect of a redistribution agreement between the EFL and the Premier League, the club will continue to be reliant on the support of its ownership group as the main source of funding.”
Modric’s investment hints at a growing trend of elite players becoming stakeholders in the game’s business side, potentially shaping the future of the clubs they once opposed on the field.
