![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2271959206-e1777284456123.jpg\")
\t\tA.Gain has stakes in Atletico Madrid, Leeds United and Deportivo Cali\t<\/p>\n\t\t\tTuesday 28 April 2026 5:00 am
\n\t\t\t\t\t\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Updated:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\tMonday 27 April 2026 2:24 pm\n\t<\/p>\n
\t\tA.Gain has stakes in Atletico Madrid, Leeds United and Deportivo Cali\t<\/p>\n
A.Gain owns chunks of Leeds United and Atletico Madrid and has just launched a $150m fund to accelerate its take on multi-club ownership.<\/p>\n
These are heady days for Bobby Aitkenhead, a former college basketball player who also represented his native Guatemala. He is co-founder and one of the managing partners of A.Gain\u2019s sports fund, which has minority investments in both Leeds United and Atletico Madrid.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Leeds took a break from their promising fight to stay in the Premier League to face Chelsea in an FA Cup semi-final. Tomorrow, Atletico host Arsenal in the first leg of their Champions League final. Aitkenhead was at Wembley to witness a narrow defeat and will be at the Metropolitano in Madrid.<\/p>\n
Those two clubs are only the start, however. A.Gain \u2013 formerly IDC Network<\/a> \u2013 also has a majority stake in Colombia\u2019s Deportivo Cali and is targeting a diversified portfolio featuring shares in seven or eight teams. Earlier this month it formally launched its fund with the aim of raising $150m to $175m.<\/p>\n \u201cWe thought it was very important to have a few deals locked in. It was going to be hard to put this thesis out there, raise money, and then go try to do the deals,\u201d Aitkenhead tells City AM.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have three other deals that are in the oven, and hopefully at least two will close. And from there we think that the strategy works.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe ideal strategy is seven to eight clubs. But with five you\u2019re diversified, and you\u2019ve got the minimum financial profile you wanted. Then we can hopefully scale the seven clubs from there.\u201d<\/p>\n A.Gain\u2019s twist on multi-club ownership<\/p>\n A.Gain\u2019s aim is to have minority stakes in \u201cfive elite names like Leeds and Atletico in the major leagues in the world\u201d whose owners it trusts to deliver growth. At Leeds, that is 49ers Enterprises<\/a>; at Atletico it is Apollo Sports Capital<\/a>. Both deals were done in the last few months.<\/p>\n In addition, it wants larger stakes in two or three \u201calpha clubs\u201d in need of investment, where \u201cthe transactions are smaller, you\u2019re taking on more risk, but you can attain much greater return as well\u201d. Deportivo Cali, which A.Gain acquired last year, is one such club.<\/p>\n It is a twist on the multi-club ownership model<\/a>, which tends to have one mega club being fed by satellites and is, A.Gain believe, a unique proposition. Aitkenhead and fellow managing partners Richard Lee and Reeta Holmes have contributed 20 per cent to the fund.<\/p>\n The investment thesis is simple: sport experiences will continue to boom, especially as AI increases leisure time, and the biggest brands stand to benefit \u2013 but only if they are well run.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn football, we found a lot of dispersion between valuations, between possibilities in each of the clubs, huge dispersion between how clubs are managed in the same leagues,\u201d Aitkenhead says.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat gives you an opportunity to expose yourself into assets that are getting transformed, that are evolving into institutional quality and, through the tailwinds of all that work, providing significant returns, if you get that right.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n \t\t\tLeeds United investor buys stake in Spanish giants Atletico Madrid<\/a><\/p>\n \tWhy A.Gain chose Leeds and Atletico<\/p>\n So far, so good. Leeds look likely to stay up after overcoming a mid-season blip, while Atletico are in the last four of Europe\u2019s elite club competition. Deportivo Cali, a former club of Colombia legend Carlos Valderrama, are safely in mid-table.<\/p>\n \u201cWe think of Leeds as the sleeping giant of Europe,\u201d says Aitkenhead. \u201cThere\u2019s so many data points, like when they were in the Championship<\/a> they sold more shirts than five Premier League clubs combined.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I finally got to go to a game, it [Leeds] felt like Atletico \u2013 real loyal fans, hard-working people that love their team, love their city, and show up in masses of families, from grandparents to young kids. It really represents the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been fortunate to go to a lot of stadiums in the UK, Spain, World Cups. And the feeling at Leeds has got to be up there in terms of the energy.\u201d<\/p>\n A.Gain was attracted to Atletico Madrid by the club\u2019s progressive approach to value creation via their modern stadium<\/a> and the surrounding sports city project, and their renewed ambition to challenge the duopoly of Real Madrid and Barcelona in LaLiga.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thesis around the investment and the returns don\u2019t depend on Atletico becoming the second or first club for some period. But it doesn\u2019t mean that the club isn\u2019t going to try, and that there is real planning and real effort to not sit there at three,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Deportivo Cali, meanwhile, was \u201ca unique opportunity\u201d to save a club in \u201cmassive distress\u201d that was \u201cgoing to disappear\u201d. A.Gain spotted the opportunities in real estate and talent development, with Cali one of Colombia\u2019s talent hotbeds.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n At a recent Leeds game, City AM joined Aitkenhead, Lee and portfolio manager Santos Nagore. The three enjoyed pre-match drinks at The Peacock pub opposite Elland Road and exchanged gifts with club legend and ambassador Steve Hodge<\/a>, with whom they have become friends.<\/p>\n Afterwards, Aitkenhead took a taxi straight to Heathrow to fly back to his home in Madrid, where Atletico were playing the following day. It is put to him that jet-setting from one football club directors\u2019 box to the next looks a lot like living the dream.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, this is sort of living a dream,\u201d he says. \u201cWe are passionate about sports. We\u2019ve all been athletes to the highest extent we could until our 20s, competed fairly significantly for where we were from, but never made it to the big leagues, any of us.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe are big, big sports fans, and to be able to invest into the category, specifically football which we love and enjoy so much, is really a dream come true. However, we are managers. We manage our own money first and then invite other families to invest with us.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo this could never be a passion project. It had to 100 per cent be a financially driven, impact-driven project.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFor us to be able to put together a product that is unique, diversified and that has the likelihood of outsized returns with downside protections in football, which we love and appreciate so much, is definitely very meaningful and very fun.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n![\"A.Gain's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/37b0a01e-dffd-4f90-a1de-a19338c309e2.jpg\")
A.Gain\u2019s Santos Nagore (far left), Bobby Aitkenhead (second left) and Richard Lee (far right) with City AM\u2019s Frank Dalleres\u2018Living the dream\u2019 but \u2018not a passion project\u2019<\/p>\n