Sunderland co-owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has explained how events led him to a takeover of the club, as part of the “Sunderland ‘Till I Die” documentary.
Kyril Louis-Dreyfus completed a takeover of Sunderland in 2021, purchasing a controlling stake from Stewart Donald. The new chairman brought about plenty of questions surrounding the future of the club, having been just 23-years-old at the time.
There were issues surrounding the Black Cats too, following back-to-back relegation and then a failure to bounce straight out of League One. Many mistakes on and off the pitch contributed towards the downward spiral.
However, the plan from the new ownership group was to start moving that spiral the other way, with hopes of returning to the top in the future. That was achieved in part, with promotion from League One confirmed in 2022, with a 2-0 win over Wycombe Wanderers in the playoff final.
There were hopes of an immediate return to the Premier League too, with a top six finish on their return to the Championship. Defeat in the playoffs last season has left Sunderland still searching for that route back to the top flight though.
Kyril Louis-Dreyfus on Sunderland takeover
With a new series of the famous Netflix documentary “Sunderland ‘Till I Die” now here, it has given an opportunity to see some of the scenes involving the new ownership and promotion from League One. In an interview on the series, Louis-Dreyfus discussed the driving force behind the takeover: a chance encounter with Juan Satori.
“So I’ve known Juan Satori since a few years…” the Sunderland co-owner said on the Netflix documentary. “We met in the Maldives on a tiny island where the staff used to play football and I decided to join in and he decided to join in.
“And then we just kept seeing each other to play football in different parts of the world. So basically I phoned him up out of curiosity to see how things are going and he mentioned to me how the club is on sale and if I’m interested to take a closer look at it. That’s when I really saw the size and the magnitude of the football club and the huge potential it has.”
Who own Sunderland?
Kyril Louis-Dreyfus is the chairman and majority shareholder at Sunderland since he completed a takeover in February 2021. Born in Zurich, the 26-year-old is the son of French businessman Robert Louis-Dreyfus, and also has shares in Marseille.
While Louis-Dreyfus owns 64% of the football club, the other 34% is owned by Juan Sartori, a Uruguayan businessman and politician. Sartori is the senator of Uruguay, while his interest in football has also seen him become part of the board at AS Monaco.
How much are the Sunderland owners worth?
The Sunderland Echo has previously claimed that Kyril Louis-Dreyfus is worth an estimated £2billion, while another report claims that Juan Sartori is worth roughly £80million.