Soccer for sale: What are American sport stars buying British football playing at?

From golfers Justin Thomas and Jordan Speith to the American footaball legend Tom Brady, a slew of wealthy US sportsmen with no track record in football are buying into the beautiful game, writes Jim White. If they’re looking for a Welcome To Wrexham-inspired Hollywood fairytale, they may be in for a shock

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When it was announced that Tom Brady was part of the consortium of new owners at Birmingham City, a joke quickly circulated on social media.

Clearly, the greatest American footballer of all time, the man who holds the record of seven Superbowl wins, had made a geographical mistake. He must have thought the club was based in Birmingham, Alabama. Because the dominant personality in American football has never previously been known as Brady the Bluenose.

Indeed, his interest in what he would call soccer – particularly that played in England’s second city – has been entirely hidden throughout his quarter-century hurling a ball around. Yet here he is suddenly revealing a connection with a struggling championship club. But according to a new promotional video, he is on his way to the west Midlands. “See you at St Andrews,” he enthused at the end of a short clip in which he admitted that his knowledge of the game was more than limited.