Alibaba Group executive chairman and founder Jack Ma had recently denied his interest in buying majority ownership of Italian Serie A team AC Milan after several reports went out that the Chinese business magnate is planning a summer takeover of the said club.
The Mirror recently reported that Ma, also a philanthropist and soccer fanatic who currently co-owns Chinese Super League champions Guangzhou Evergrande FC, is intending to place a "€700 million bid" to take over ownership of the reeling Italian top flight club from former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Ma, who is reported as the richest man in mainland China and 18th richest person in the world, is estimated to have a net worth of €22 billion ($25 billion) as his Alibaba firm owns Chinese social media giant Weibo and numerous e-commerce retailing companies.
The report noted that the deal "brokered by an Italian-American banking group" will begin with Ma having a 70% stake of the football club "before completing a full takeover inside 12 months".
It was also said that Ma's party is just awaiting the response of Berlusconi, who according to rumors is willing to sell his majority stake soon.
However, an article from Xinhuanet said that Ma is denying the said reports of him negotiating with Berlusconi for the said club ownership.
The 51-year-old business mogul expressed his side about the reports with a joke on his company-owned Weibo, saying that "Is AC Milan in the Italian city of Milan? I heard that Mike Tyson of the Lakers recently traveled to Milan, but I am not sure if it is AC Milan. Now Yao Ming will get in trouble".
Although such response is not a clear denial of Ma's interest in owning a European football club, it remains to be seen whether the reports are true or not as the 2015-2016 Italian Serie A season slowly winds down to a close next month.
Ma founded Alibaba in the 1990s in the city of Hangzhou as a retail outlet store which expanded to the conglomerate that it is today.
There were speculations that another internet business man, Robin Li, founder of the Chinese search engine Badu, is also a potential candidate to own Milan. Li, 47, is the seventh richest man in mainland China with a net worth of €8.5 billion ($9.6 billion).