An investment in football as an active footballer. David Beckham as a mirror and the United States as a market in evident growth. The Spanish Juan Mata joins San Diego FC as a partner and faces an adventure in the MLS from the offices.
The MLS faces its final stretch these weeks with the fight for the MLS Cup, which has the West side as conference finalists LA Galaxy and the Seattle Sounders and in the East to Orlando City and the New York Red Bulls.
But those that are no longer in competition, including Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami after their failure in the playoff, are already preparing for the 2025 season, in which the main novelty will be a new rival: the San Diego FC.
With Snapdragon Stadium as its home, San Diego FC will be the 30th team in MLS. He already has a coach, the American of Chilean descent Mikey Varasand his main figure in the squad, the Mexican Hirving Lozano.
However, last week the Californian team announced another signing, this time for its organizational chart: that of the Spanish footballer Juan Mata as an investment partner of San Diego FC.
“Mata is the first active international soccer player to have an investment in an MLS franchise and joins David Beckham as the second international player to be involved as an investor in an MLS club,” the team said in a statement.
As part of his landing at the Galaxy in 2007, which marked a before and after in soccer in the US, Beckham received option to buy MLS expansion team for $25 million. That clause ended up becoming Inter Miami.
Mata’s aspirations are not so high, but the former player for clubs such as Valencia, Chelsea and Manchester United has also seen the potential that football has in the country of the stars and stripes, which In 2026 it will organize the World Cup together with Mexico and Canada.
The resurgence of San Diego
“Joining San Diego FC as an investment partner is an exciting opportunity to help build something truly special in a city and a league that is experiencing incredible growth“Mata pointed out.
The midfielder, 36 years old and who now plays for Western Sydney Wanderers after playing for Galatasaray and Vissel Kobe, thus made reference to a city like San Diego whose weight in the US does not seem to have a proportionate reflection in sport. .
According to the United States Census Bureau, San Diego is the eighth most populous city in the country with 1,388,320 people. By counties, San Diego is the fifth with the most inhabitants with 3,269,973.
However, this Californian city currently only has one team from the major US men’s leagues: the San Diego Padres of the MLB.
They lost the NFL when the Chargers moved to Los Angeles. The NBA also left San Diego for the mecca of Hollywood with the departure of the Clippers and with the move of the Rockets to Houston.
Even more striking is the shortage of top-level equipment in San Diego if you take into account that, just across the border with Mexico, is Tijuana, which has 2,157,853 inhabitants according to the latest Mexican census (2020) and with the which practically forms a binational megalopolis.
Into this panorama comes San Diego FC, whose main owners are businessman Mohamed Mansour and the native Sycuan Tribe of the Kumeyaay Nation and which joins the San Diego Wave, founded in 2022 in the NWSL (the US women’s league). .), to enhance the passion for football in the city.
“We are absolutely delighted that Juan Mata has joined the club as an investment partner“said Mansour, who stressed that the social aspect of the player has also been fundamental in this union.
In this sense, Mata founded Common Goal, an initiative for the football community to donate at least 1% of its income to social causes. Common Goal is also a partner of Right to Dream, of which San Diego FC is a member and which is a group of youth academies and soccer clubs from around the world.
“This club and Right to Dream’s commitment to community impact, excellence and a vision for long-term success aligns perfectly with my own values. I hope to contribute with my experience and passion for this sport and work together with the entire team to build a club that inspires both on and off the field,” argued Mata.
For his part, Mansour emphasized that Mata shares his “values of wanting to use football to generate social impact and long-term changeeither”.
This is not Mata’s first business foray into sports since he also He is an investor in Formula 1 through the Alpine team through the Otro Capital investment fund.
But with San Diego FC, Mata has consolidated his double dimension in football: that of the player on the pitch and that of the businessman in the offices.
Keep reading:
– Carlos Vela in charge of the LAFC casualties
– Salomón Rondón is the only representative of Liga MX in The Best
– Monterrey, with a controversial penalty, takes advantage over Pumas: 1-0
– El Pibe Valderrama supports Efraín Juárez