Alexis Ohanian has said Chelsea can be “America’s team” and backed the club to become “a billion dollar franchise one day.”
Speaking after watching Sonia Bompastor’s side win the FA Cup final at Wembley by beating Manchester United 3-0, Reddit co-founder Ohanian, who bought a 10% stake in Chelsea last week for £20 million ($26.52 million), talked up the team.
“Chelsea is very unique. These are the queens of global soccer and they’ve got the trophy case to prove it,” Ohanian told the BBC in an interview from Wembley, where he watched the game alongside his wife, tennis legend, Serena Williams.
This will be a billion dollar franchise one day and I hope my dollars, my pounds, can go towards that and especially back home in America, this is going to be America’s team.
The 42-year-old has been involved in women’s soccer before and was the largest shareholder of Angel City FC, which he helped launch to great fanfare in 2020, before it was sold for $250 million in 2024.
The victory meant Sonia Bompastor’s Chelsea side finished the domestic season unbeaten, having won the League Cup final against Manchester City and triumphed in the Women’s Super League for the sixth successive year.
However, they failed in their bid for Champions League glory, beaten 8-2 on aggregate by Barcelona in the semifinal.