An Aston Villa fan supports the club's sale and former owner Randy Lerner's departure. (Photo : Getty Images)
Chinese business magnate Dr. Tony Xia Jiantong bought newly-relegated English Premier League club Aston Villa FC for £60 million, the club announced on Wednesday night.
Xinhuanet reported that the "US-educated Chinese businessman" purchased Aston Villa and will become its "new chairman after the Rui Kang Group bought the club in a deal brokered in China".
Xia Jiantong is the owner, chairman, and CEO of the Recon Group, a Chinese conglomerate that majority owns five publicly-listed firms in the Hong Kong and Chinese stock exchanges and has an employee base of 35,000 workers in 75 different countries.
Furthermore, he is included in the top 25 graduates of his class of 1,000 during his studies at Harvard and MIT and also a five-month exchange with Oxford University.
Xia had always been a passionate football fan. He was a varsity striker during his collegiate days and continues to follow the game as a fan at this point in his life.
"Dr. Xia decided to buy an iconic football club in England as the cornerstone of his Sports, Leisure and Tourism Division. He became a fan of Aston Villa many years ago and is delighted at the opportunity to become the new owner," his group said in an official statement.
The statement also mentioned that Xia Jiantong's primary goal is to bring back the Villans to the Premier League in 2017-2018 and then lead the club to finish in the top six at the end of that season.
He also wants to make Villa compete in the European continental competitions such as the Champions League and Europa League in the future as he "plans to make Aston Villa the most famous football Club in China with a huge fan base".
Meanwhile, former owner Randy Lerner said goodbye to club's fans and supporters in a letter posted on the Villan's website, as per BBC Sport.
Lerner emphasized in the message the "number of young players that came through during his tenure" and also his "affection for reading history", mentioning the restoration of the Villa Park's Jacobean Holte Hotel and the addition of a mosaic at the Holte End as some of his accomplishments as the owner of the club.
He also underscored his goal had always been to improve "the club's infrastructure as well as the squad". He admitted, though, that he found it harder and harder to carry out his objectives in the past several years.
