An impressive career that included four countries and saw him play more than 450 appearances for senior clubs the ex- Argentine player Maxi Lopez is reportedly near the point of purchasing Championship team Birmingham City.Along with Blues supporter along with the businessman Paul Richardson, Lopez is the chief of a consortium that is ready to announce that they are acquiring Midlands’ football club following the departure of former Chairman Laurence Bassini missed his deadline of exclusivity in order to make an agreement work. After six consecutive seasons of being 17th or less in the second tier of England under the current chairperson Wenqing Zhao, Birmingham fans will be thrilled to have the arrival of a new owner, in their hopes of an eventual Premier League return. But, with little knowledge of the role played by Lopez in the purchase, there’s suspense and concern are currently surrounding St. Andrews.
In this piece we look at Maxi Lopez’s career in football and what he’s accomplished after football and where funds for the Birmingham acquisition will be sourced.
Maxi Lopez career
The Argentinean born Lopez was raised to Buenos Aires in Argentina, as many other players from the same region, Lopez came through the ranks of the prestigious club River Plate in his early career. At 17 years old, Lopez made his debut as a senior with the team in 2001 . He went on to play in 70 games for the club in all competitions and score 16 goals over the course of his time.
Because of his ability early on, European giants Barcelona came to the rescue and in January 2005 Lopez was offered a move into Spain in exchange for EUR6.2 million (PS5.3m). His time at the Catalan team didn’t go according exactly as planned and despite scoring just four minutes into his first game at Chelsea at the Champions League, he only made 19 appearances for the club overall and then departed for FC Moscow on a permanent contract in 2007. A few games included Gremio, Catania, Milan and Sampdoria and many more continued until Lopez decided to announce his retirement from the game in 2021. In all, Lopez ended up making 418 appearances for clubs throughout his career, scoring 110 goals and representing his home country of Argentina more than 30 times in youth levels.
What is the reason why Maxi Lopez and Mauro Icardi have a bad relationship?
In addition to playing in the most prestigious leagues like Serie A and La Liga, Lopez is also well-known for his relationship with his former teammates Mauro Icardi who is now playing for Paris Saint-Germain.This comes from the fact that Lopez’s ex-wife Wanda Nara, who he was married during five years of marriage and who has three children and later married Icardi.
Lopez and Icardi were close to each other after working together in Italian team Sampdoria. Based on reports Lopez was known to invite his fellow countryman to vacation with his family and gave his home over to Icardi when Icardi first came to Europe from Argentina. There were reports of an affair that resulted in Lopez refusing to touch Icardi’s hand during the game against Sampdoria as well as Inter Milan in 2014, which led to the press calling the match the ‘Wanda derby’.Icardi and Nara have been married for eight years.
What did Maxi Lopez accomplished after his football playing career? Where did the cash for this Birmingham City takeover come from?In reality, little is public about the things Lopez did since he quit football in 2021.He’s believed to have a strong interest in business and has a partnership with his fellow countryman Christian Codoma in a firm named Maxco Capital – Codoma is also part of the consortium that will purchase Birmingham.
Lopez also earned a hefty salary for a player due to his huge moves and contracts . He also has a following on social media with more than 2 million followers. It’s possible that the majority of the money to fund the takeover of Birmingham City are coming from his business partner Paul Richardson.
Richardson reported that he earned his money as the chairman and shareholder of the fitness clothing company Gymshark and now runs a fashion industry. What’s next for this deal to take over Birmingham City takeover? The morning of July 19 Lopez as well as Richardson have announced that they’ve been given their own exclusivity periods to sign the acquisition of Birmingham.
It’s unclear when the period will be over but Richardson has confirmed that Lopez and Richardson are already exchanging contracts on the planned takeover.Richardson has also told the journalists today that Lopez and Lopez hope to sign an agreement for the Midlands club in about three weeks.
