Alexandre Pato is a former Brazilian striker that has won the Italian Serie A title with AC Milan, lifted the FIFA Club World Cup and landed an Olympic Games silver medal. Pato has scored goals for Chelsea, Villarreal and the Brazilian national team, and has been inducted into AC Milan’s hall of fame.
Unsurprisingly, his footballing paths have never crossed with Northampton Town FC, but that looks all set to change as the 36-year-old heads a consortium that is reportedly close to taking over the Cobblers. Sports Alpha Capital, which boasts Pato as an investor, is said to have agreed terms on the purchase of a majority stake, although the financial side has not been made public.
However, the deal will still need to be ratified by both the FA and the new Independent Football Regulator, who will be tasked with ensuring that the consortium is fit, proper and appropriately funded to secure Northampton Town’s future.
Little is known about Sports Alpha Capital, aside from that it is headed by a Brazilian businessman, Joao Xavier. They tried to purchase Colchester United earlier in 2026, but negotiations fell flat. Many questions remain. And perhaps one of the most pertinent is…
Why Do Foreign Investors Buy Lower League Clubs?
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought Wrexham for a reported $2.6M.
Now, their Wrexham just spent nearly 3x that on Premier League player Lewis O’Brien as they prepare for the EFL Championship.
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) July 29, 2025
Most football fans in Britain are familiar with the story of Wrexham. A proud club in the north of Wales, Wrexham have had famous moments over the course of time but had fallen on hard times in the 2000s, with a miniscule budget and a home stadium in desperate need of repair.
Step forward Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, the Hollywood actors with considerable financial heft and a new-found love of the beautiful game. Like all good creatives, they were seduced by the back story – Wrexham being the third oldest football club on the planet.
The duo loves an underdog story too, so set about rebuilding Wrexham from the ground up… with a documentary film crew in tow, naturally. Backed by their benefactors’ wealth and ability to land lucrative commercial partnerships and social media traction, Wrexham have flown up the leagues – from the National League in 2022/23 to just missing out on the Championship play-offs in 2025/26.
They will try to sell you that Wrexham’s ascent is a remarkable tale of a small town triumphing against the odds, but in truth it ultimately reminds us of one key fact: in lower league football, money is typically the difference between success and failure.
Plenty have been attracted by the Wrexham effect, and in fact some lower league clubs in England and the rest of the UK were taken over by foreign investors before Reynolds and Rob Mac came along. The Financial Times most eloquently described the promotion battle from League One in 2024/25: ‘It’s a three-way fight for promotion between a New York hedge fund, a Kazakh billionaire and two Hollywood actors.’
Crawley Town
Barely a year after Reynolds and Mac took the keys of Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground, another set of American investors had taken ownership of Crawley Town. WAGMI United, a consortium that had made their money from trading cryptocurrency, took the helm of the League Two club in April 2022, immediately making bold claims as to what they would achieve.
They did oversee a promotion to League One, but they were quickly relegated back to the fourth tier and, in 2025/26, only survived demotion to non-league football by a solitary point. By the summer of 2025, WAGMI had had enough. They sold their majority stake to KB Sports and Leisure and swiftly departed the scene.
Walsall
In that same summer of 2022, the American investment firm Trivela took control of Walsall. A trivela is a Portuguese translation of a shot taken with the outside of the foot, so the group at least have some football heritage to their name.
The Alabama firm, headed by Benjamin Boycott and Kenneth Polk, has invested steadily in the West Midlands outfit, who have risen steadily up League Two since – they finished 16th in the 2022/23 campaign. But reached the play-off final in 2025 having topped the table for much of the season… eventually losing out to Wimbledon. However, a slump to 13th in 2025/26 suggests that Trivela have work to do to keep Walsall moving forwards.
Gillingham
Another American, Brad Galinson, was tempted enough to make a move into football club ownership that he acquired the controlling stake in Gillingham in December 2022. Galinson, who has made his money from retail and real estate, has spoken of his desire to integrate an analytical approach to transfers – one that is ubiquitous in American sports.
It will be the first chance he has had to truly flex his financial muscle, with the Gills marooned in mid-table in League Two during Galinson’s tenure so far.
Huddersfield Town
In the summer of 2023, Huddersfield Town was acquired by the American entrepreneur Kevin Nagle. Nagle, a medical sector and pharmaceuticals billionaire, was seduced by the Terriers’ long history and the classic ‘sleeping giant’ narrative, with Huddersfield having made occasional forays into the Premier League over the years.
If fans of the Yorkshire club were hoping for a swift ride up the English football pyramid, they have been sorely mistaken. Huddersfield have been relegated from the Championship to League One on Nagle’s watch, without really threatening the promotion places in their two seasons in the third tier.
Foreign Ownership in Non-League Football
International investors are even being attracted by the charms of non-league football, where the financial barriers to entry are a lot lower. In fairness, Castle Sports Group – headed by Tom Piatak – took over Carlisle United when they were playing in League Two. They have since been relegated to the National League, despite the American investment, and are yet to plot a course out of non-league.
Dagenham & Redbridge are owned by a consortium led by notable YouTubers and social media influencers, such as KSI, while King’s Lynn Town was acquired by a syndicate from Singapore in 2025. Even Real Bedford, currently housed in the seventh tier of English football, has attracted investment from Bitcoin entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.
