Liverpool FC is one of the world's oldest, proudest and most successful sporting teams. It's also on the shopping list of a Chinese video gaming giant.
Zhu Jun is founder of The9, the online gaming provider that used to operate World of Warcraft in China, and now holds a majority stake in Red 5 Studios.
The guy oozes money, and like many other men who ooze money, he's got an itch to spend some on a big-name sporting team. Though Jun already owns Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua, he's currently in talks to buy Liverpool, which was recently put up for sale by current owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett.
In a weird twist, if successful, 44 year-old Jun would become the first owner of the team to have actually played against them, exerting his influence during a 2007 match between Shenhua and Liverpool to get himself on the pitch for five minutes.
Chinese gaming tycoon holds takeover talks with Liverpool [The Independent]