Todd Boehly: From high-school wrestler to sports team supremo

High-school wrestling champion Todd Boehly has successfully grappled with one of the most complex takeover deals in the history of sport.

The American, worth 4.5 billion dollars (£3.6bn) according to Forbes magazine, is now the de facto owner of Chelsea after the consortium he led gained Premier League approval and the Government issued a licence allowing the sale to proceed.

Boehly’s business interests are vast and varied. Through holding company Eldridge Industries he has invested in Bruce Springsteen’s back catalogue, while he has also invested in the company which owns the restaurant chain Le Pain Quotidien and Chuck E Cheese pizza parlours in the United States.

He lives in Darien on Connecticut’s Gold Coast with his wife Katie and their children Nick, Zach and Clay.

Sport has played a big part in his life stretching back to high school. He attended the private Landon boys’ school in Bethesda, Maryland, and helped the school’s wrestling team, nicknamed the Bears, become Interstate Athletic Conference champions in 1990 and 1991.

He left such a lasting impression that the school’s wrestling room was named in his family’s honour in 2014.

“Todd expended as much energy on the sidelines in encouragement of his team-mates as he did on the mat,” his maths teacher Steve Sorkin said at a ceremony to mark the naming of a room, as reported in an article on the school’s website.

“How fitting it seems that so many of his classmates have travelled distances to attend the dedication, exemplifying the spirit of brotherhood that stands as Todd’s hallmark.”

Boehly went on to study at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he met his future wife Katie, a fellow student.

Academically, though, he ran into