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I’ve been a Newcastle United supporter my entire life, which means I have experienced a Premier League title capitulation, two relegations, the resigning of Andy Carroll, and Steve Bruce’s style of football.

All four of those were painful to watch, but Newcastle’s arch-rivals, Sunderland, have had it worse.

The club saw successive relegations from the Premier League and the Championship, all of which was documented in the Netflix classic Sunderland ‘Til I Die, and is spending its third successive year in League One, England’s third tier.

There is finally some light at the end of the tunnel, though, with fans hopeful that the arrival of a new owner will see a change in fortune.

Kyril Louis-Dreyfus is just 23, but the French billionaire-heir is now the majority shareholder in the club, and despite his age does come with some degree of footballing pedigree.

To start, here are some basics via The Sunderland Echo:

Born in 1997, Louis-Dreyfus is the son of Margarita and the late Robert Louis-Dreyfus.

Robert’s family founded the Louis-Dreyfus group in 1851, with the company – based in Switzerland – a global leader in agriculture, food processing, international shipping and finance.

…the family previously owned French side Marseille before selling the club to former LA Dodgers owner Frank McCourt in August 2016…

The family also held a minority share in Belgian side Standard Liege.

Kyril is said to have spent a great deal of time in the boardrooms at Marseille, taking a keen interest in the business and footballing side of things.

At least his fashion sense seems to have improved, with this taken at a Marseille match in 2012, standing alongside his mother:

He completed internships working at Marseille’s training ground and travelled with the team, spent time in the academy of Grasshoppers Zurich, and studied at the Leeds campus of the Richmond International Academic & Soccer Academy.

Fans have been to uncover exactly how much he himself is worth:

Forbes estimated his mother, Margarita, to be worth approximately $5.6billion dollars in August of this year – giving the family some real spending power.

Some reports have suggested that Kyril has a trust fund worth in excess of $2billion.

It’s not known exactly how much Kyril paid for the majority stake, but he definitely has deeper pockets than the previous majority shareholder, Stewart Donald.

Donald, Charlie Methven, and Juan Sartori will retain a minority shareholding.

The Athletic ran a great piece on Sunderland earlier in the week (they report Kyril is 24, not 23), detailing his level of involvement in key decisions being made:

He will be hands-on…Louis-Dreyfus will be involved in the appointments of a new academy manager and head of recruitment. Those are expected to come inside the next month. A heavy emphasis will also be placed upon data and analytics as plans are drawn up for what is hoped to be a transformative summer transfer window. Eighteen of the current squad are not currently under contract for 2021-22…

What will discomfort fans is that the three existing shareholders, Stewart Donald, Juan Sartori and Charlie Methven, will each retain a minority stake in the club they acquired from Ellis Short in 2018, though the source added: “Fans want to know who calls the shots, totally fair enough, and that’s going to be Louis-Dreyfus. Everything else is background noise.”

Finally, if you’re the sort that’s more interested in his private life, his Instagram account is worth a look.

Here he is with Alexandra Nowikovsky, who is believed to be his fiancée:

 

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A post shared by KLD (@kyrillouisdreyfus)

Obviously, The Daily Mail has done all the digging on that front, and you can head down that route here.

As a Newcastle fan, I would be perfectly okay with Louis-Dreyfus’ ownership imploding, and Sunderland continuing to struggle.

But football in the north-east of England deserves some good fortune, so best of luck to him.

[sources:sunderlandecho&athletic]