Profiling Daniel Kretinsky: The man interested in buying AC Milan and Roma
- Nikita Fesyukov
After finishing law school at the Masaryk University in Brno, the 43-year-old worked in several law firms until arriving at the J&T investment group, where he contributed to the creation of his EPH holding. He is now the CEO of the EPH as well as the majority shareholder with 94% and has a net worth of $2.6 billion.
The businessman is also involved in several media projects, co-owning Ringier CR, which controls some of the most influential media outlets in the Czech Republic. Just recently he bought some shares in the company which publishes the French journal Le Monde.
But the most important thing for football fans is that he owns one of the biggest clubs in the Czech Republic - Sparta Prague - and unfortunately not too successfully. Since he took over at the club in 2004, the club won only 4 league titles, despite being the most successful team of Czech history with 33 titles. Sparta have also struggled to qualify to the Champions League in 13 years and Viktoria Plzen with Slavia Prague have overtaken them in the hierarchy in recent years.
There have been some successes, but the fall from power of Sparta has been too noticeable during Kretinsky's reign at the club. His most recent excess was hiring Inter flop Andrea Stramaccioni and signing various foreign players such as Jonathan Biabiany or Rio Mavuba, with most of them flopping and having communication problems. Stramaccioni was sacked after less than a year at the club and Sparta ended up finishing 5th in the league table. This season the club from the capital started off better, but are still only third, 7 points behind both Slavia and Plzen.
It is worth nothing that Kretinsky denied the AC Milan rumours several days ago and has told Czech media that he is not interested in acquiring another club, as it may be just a tactic for Elliott or Pallotta to lower their asking price. But what is sure that, based on what he has been doing as chief of one of the best clubs in the Czech Republic, he would not be the right man to guide either the Rossoneri or the Giallorossi to glory.