Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss has emerged as a contender to buy Chelsea from Roman Abramovich amid the conflict in Ukraine.
The Russian owner is thought to be keen to hold onto the European and world champions, although that stance could be tested by the UK Government.
They could impose sanctions on the 55-year-old, who took control of the west London club in 2003.
Wyss, who has an estimated fortune of £4.3 billion, has been tentative over his position, neither admitting to serious interest or ruling himself out with a number of details needed in discussions.
The price of the Premier League giants could exceed £2 billion. While Forbes ranked Chelsea as the joint-25th most valuable sports franchise in the world at $3.2 billion (£2.4 billion) last year.
That position places Chelsea as the seventh most valuable football club in the world, behind only Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Liverpool and Manchester City.
“Abramovich is trying to sell all his villas in England, he also wants to get rid of Chelsea quickly,” Wyss told Swiss newspaper Blick.
“I and three other people received an offer on Tuesday to buy Chelsea from Abramovich. I have to wait four to five days now. Abramovich is currently asking far too much. You know, Chelsea owe him £2 billion. But Chelsea has no money. As of today, we don’t know the exact selling price.”
Swiss billionaire Wyss, who founded medical device firm Synthes USA, insisted he could only consider a deal for Chelsea with a clutch of investment partners.
“I can well imagine starting at Chelsea with partners,” said Wyss. “But I have to examine the general conditions first. But what I can already say: I’m definitely not doing something like this alone. If I buy Chelsea, then with a consortium consisting of six to seven investors.”
Born in Berne, Switzerland, the 86-year-old is known as one of the most philanthropic people in the world with his donations to politically liberal and environmental causes.
Wyss has charitable foundations with assets of over $2 billion, according to Forbes.
He attended the Swiss Federal institute of Technology Zurich, receiving his master’s degree in civil and structural engineering in 1959, before earning an MBA six years later at Harvard University.
Wyss enjoyed spells in textile engineering, including car manufacturer Chrysler in Pakistan, Turkey and the Philippines, while also spending time in the steel industry with a separate business selling planes.
It was in this business that Wyss met a surgeon who had co-founded Synthes, a medical device manufacturer, which led to him founding and taking up a role as president of Synthes USA in 1977.
Wyss established the company as the world’s largest maker of implants to mend bone fractures but resigned as CEO in 2007, with Johnson & Johnson - the medical company which developed a Covid vaccine - acquiring the company five years later for $19.7 billion in cash and stock.
Wyss remains invested in publicly-traded biotech companies, with stakes in NovoCure and Molecular Partners.
In addition to his charitable foundations, Wyss has pledged to donate $1 billion to conservation efforts around the world over a decade through the Wyss Campaign for Nature, which aims to conserve 30 per cent of the world’s land and oceans by 2030.
The 86-year-old divides his time between Switzerland and Wyoming in the United States, while also owning a 900-acre ranch in Paso Robles, California.
Wyss has already declared he would be part of a “consortium consisting of six to seven investors”, given he has no previous history investing in sport.
