As one of the richest people on the planet, Tesla boss Elon Musk is known to splash the cash. He recently sold $6.9 billion in shares to fund a seemingly ill-fated attempt to buy Twitter.
But could he now have his sights set on the world of sport? Well, maybe.
Musk tweeted in the early hours of Wednesday morning that he was “buying Manchster United,” adding “ur welcome.”
The remark came as part of a series of tweets in which he joked about his political preferences, but when he was asked directly if it was true, Musk conceded that “no, this is a long-running joke on Twitter. I’m not buying any sports teams.”
Still, it didn’t stop fans of the English Premier League team from reacting enthusiastically to the idea.
“You have absolutely no idea the sheer amount of hope you just have to a million fans worldwide” wrote one Man U supporter on Twitter.
“Pls do it, we badly need a good businessman owner and more importantly we would have the coolest football team owner EVER!” wrote another.
So who owns Manchester United now?
Manchester United are one of the world’s most successful and popular teams.
They have been champions of England a record twenty times and been crowned champions of Europe three times.
The Glazer family bought the club for US$955.51 million in 2005, but a movement to oust the Americans has grown over the past year as the club struggled on the pitch.
Musk is currently trying to back out of a US$44 billion agreement to buy twitter, with the social media company taking him to court.
Manchester United opened the new Premier League season with a pair of lacklustre losses under new head coach Erik ten Hag and are currently bottom of the table.
Star striker Cristiano Ronaldo also said in the off-season he wanted to leave the club, citing a desire to play Champions League football.
