Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappe is set to become the new majority owner of French second division club Stade Malherbe de Caen, a source has confirmed to ESPN.
His acquisition is expected to be announced imminently, the source said, and will make the 25-year-old the youngest active player to own a European professional football club.
The newcomer to Real Madrid will invest around 15 million euros through his own investment fund Coalition Capital to acquire 80% of the club's capital and will also pay off part of the club's debt.
Mbappé will replace the previous majority shareholder, the American investment fund Oaktree, which bought 80% of the club's shares in 2020. The remaining 20% of the capital is held by Pierre Antoine Capton, current chairman of the club's supervisory board.
Caen are currently in Ligue 2 after being relegated from the top flight in May 2019.
The relationship between the Mbappés and Caen goes back a long way. In 2014, when Mbappé was 13, he was on the verge of signing for the club, but opted for Monaco instead.
According to the source, Caen are expected to appoint Ziad Hammoud as the new president. Hammoud is a close friend of the France captain and is in charge of his image rights company. Other close allies of Mbappe could also arrive to fill other roles at the club, the source said.
It remains unclear how much of his own money Mbappé will ultimately invest and what his ambitions are for the club, the source said.
Caen, a city located in Normandy, 240 kilometres west of Paris, will start its Ligue 2 season on 17 August against Paris FC, three days after Mbappé makes his debut for Real Madrid in the European Super Cup against Atalanta and one day before the start of the 2024 LaLiga campaign with a trip to Mallorca.
