Eli Manning joins NWSL's Gotham FC ownership group
Eli Manning is dipping his toes into the professional sports ownership pool.
The two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback for the New York Giants is now a minority owner of the National Women’s Soccer League's NJ/NY Gotham FC, the team announced Wednesday.
“This league and this team practice 15 minutes away from my house, they play games right here in New Jersey,” Manning told the New York Post. “I wanted to support them, and the idea of taking my kids to a practice or a game ... I have three girls. It’s a way to get involved and find role models for my girls. You put them in different things, and you want them to find things that they’re passionate about. It creates such great life lessons and work ethic and teamwork and dedication and commitment and those type of things."
Manning played 16 seasons for the Giants from 2004-2019 where he won two Super Bowls and made the Pro Bowl four times. He also ranks eighth all-time in passing yards, ninth in passing touchdowns and owns the third-longest consecutive start streak in NFL history.
Manning does have experience playing soccer – until the fourth grade, he told the Post. Now, he'll play a role in shaping one of the founding members of the NWSL. Gotham FC was known as Sky Blue FC when the league began in 2012 before the team officially changed its name in 2021.
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Sue Bird, Carli Lloyd also part owners
Manning isn't the only celebrity to have an ownership stake in Gotham FC.
Four-time WNBA champion Sue Bird became a minority investor in July. Bird announced earlier this year that she would retire from basketball after 21 years with the Seattle Storm.
Former USWNT and Gotham FC player Carli Lloyd also became a minority owner after she retired in 2021.
Brooklyn Nets (but maybe not for long) star Kevin Durant and his business partner, Rich Kleiman, made a "significant investment" in Gotham FC to become minority owners in the team this past May.
