One of the world’s biggest sports stars is eyeing a new outpost in the Bay Area.
Bloomberg reported Wednesday that Lionel Messi has launched a San Francisco-based holding company called Play Time, which will invest in sports, media and tech and become the soccer icon’s “main investment vehicle.”
Messi, 35, currently stars for a stacked Paris Saint-Germain squad and is on the verge of making his final World Cup appearance for Argentina. According to Forbes, Messi is the world’s highest-paid athlete in 2022, making $130 million with salary and endorsements. His net worth is assumed to be in the hundreds of millions.
“I am excited to extend our roots into Silicon Valley,” Messi said in a statement, via Bloomberg. “I am thrilled that Play Time will collaborate with daring entrepreneurs from all over the world.”
Messi’s new company will focus on sports startups and will also explore team ownership opportunities. Venture capitalist Razmig Hovaghimian will be tasked with running the company for Messi.
Maybe San Jose Earthquakes fans can dream about Messi playing at Avaya Stadium as a player-owner in the future. That move, of course, would require him buying the Quakes from tight-fisted owner John Fisher, which fans would love. Hell, let’s take this pipe dream further and see if Messi wants to end A’s fans’ misery and buy the MLB team from Fisher.
This should be on the radar of Warriors entrepreneur Andre Iguodala, who has solid connections with Silicon Valley and big-picture things on his mind after his final season with the Warriors. He started his Point Forward podcast last year and recently said he's exploring investment opportunities in the digital creator space.
Ditto for the franchise. Joe Lacob also told The Athletic's Ethan Sherwood Strauss in 2019 that he had huge goals in mind for the franchise in the future.
“I want this to become more than a basketball team,” Lacob said. “I want it to become a sports entertainment, media and technology company. It’s not just a team. That will become clear over the years.”
