Happy new week,
Former women’s professional footballer, Eniola Aluko is now the first black female football club owner in Italy after a successful acquisition of FC Como by her ownership group: Mercury 13. A consortium aiming to purchase 13 women’s football clubs and invest $100 million in women’s football clubs across Europe and Latin America.
Eniola Aluko played for Charlton Athletic, Chelsea, Juventus and several other big teams. She hung up her boots in January 2020 after playing a whopping 102 times for England between 2004 and 2016, where she played three World Cups, two European championships, and played for Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics.
Aluko made history when she became the first female pundit on Match of the Day in 2014. She continued punditry alongside her football career during the television coverage of the 2016 Euros, the women's Euros in 2017, the 2018 World Cup and 2019 Women's World Cup. After retiring in 2020, she successfully transitioned into punditry, and was part of Amazon Prime's pundit team for their coverage of the 2020/21 Premier League season. She also appeared on ITV's coverage of the Euro 2020 tournament and is a regular face on the channel's football coverage.
Aluko is a huge advocate for growing women’s football. After retiring from professional football she became the director of women's football at Aston Villa, as well as becoming the first ever sporting director for Angel City, a newly formed National Women's Soccer League team based in Los Angeles. She led the club’s recruitment strategy, oversaw player and technical staff development, and acted as the NWSL liaison, managing compliance and administration.
In 2023, Aluko joined Mercury 13, an investment group identifying and investing in women’s football clubs and fuelling their commercial power. Mercury 13 is working on building a stable of women’s clubs, in a bid to capitalise on the growing interest in the sport. The majority of women’s football teams in Europe are owned by men’s clubs and they are looking to change that. Their first deal is purchasing a controlling stake in FC Como Women in northern Italy. They are planning to tap into both the local community and the “millions of international tourists that visit Lake Como every year,” said Mercury 13’s founder, Victoire Cogevina Reynal.
Eni Aluko has successfully transitioned from being a professional player to influencing the game off the pitch. This landmark acquisition by the Mercury 13 group, with Eni Aluko at the helm, represents a significant milestone in the history of Italian football and the ongoing efforts to promote diversity and inclusivity in the sport. Her involvement is expected to elevate the profile of women’s football in Italy and serves as an inspiration to many young women aspiring to be part of women’s football whether that's working on or off the pitch.
Something interesting to watch
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