NOT many people could afford to buy Manchester United single-handedly.
But one Chelsea reject could stump up the cash for a £5billion takeover.
That’s because he is worth more than football superstars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi combined.
Faiq Bolkiah, 24, spent two years playing for Chelsea between 2014 and 2016.
The ace is the nephew of the Sultan of Brunei.
And Bolkiah is heir to a stunning fortune worth £16BILLION.
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That’s a lot more than the combined £1bn net worth of Ronaldo and Messi, the two biggest names in football.
And Bolkiah would have plenty of change to spare if he decided to meet the Glazers’ asking price for United this month.
The two frontrunners are Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and British business Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
And there is no indication the Bruneian royal family intends on joining the process.
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Indeed, Bolkiah is still early in his football journey.
He joined Southampton’s academy in 2009 at the age of 12 after being spotted at AFC Newbury.
Bolkiah then had trials at Reading and Arsenal, where he played in the 2013 Lion City Cup.
However, he finally landed a youth contract when Chelsea came in 2014.
Bolkiah spent two years with the Blues’ reserves before joining Leicester on a four-year contract.
The midfielder was then released and allowed to join Portuguese side Maritimo.
He now plays in Thailand’s top division with Chonburi.
And Bolkiah has already clocked up six caps for Brunei’s national team.
But he dreams of returning to England after admitting leaving Leicester for Portugal was a mistake.
Bolkiah said: “Maritimo said to me ‘you’ll come here, you’ll play’ so I said ‘I just want to be here for a year. The main thing for me is I want to play.’ Obviously, that didn’t happen.
“I definitely regret moving there. I feel like there was a lot of politics to do with it as well, why Maritimo wanted me. I didn’t feel like they were being fully honest.
“It definitely made me stronger. It definitely made me work harder and keep my head down. That didn’t change for sure. But I definitely made the right decision to leave.
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“I had another two years left on my contract there. They changed presidents at the time, I went in there and they understood my situation.
“It wouldn’t have done me or the club any good for me to be there longer.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
