4 facts you may not know about Southampton chairman Henrik Kraft | OneFootball

Highlights

Sports Republic bought a majority 80% share in Southampton in 2022 from Gao Jisheng.

The group, which was founded by Rasmus Ankersen and Henrik Kraft and backed by Dragan Šolak, have trusted youth in their transfer business. This saw an influx of players in their first summer transfer window. Despite that, they didn’t manage to stay in the Premier League.

After taking over the club, Kraft spoke to the media and revealed how they were planning to approach their ownership of the Saints.

He said: “We will be an active and engaged owner, but we will not be starting any revolutions.

“We were attracted to Southampton because it is already a well-run club that follows a clearly defined strategy.

“Southampton’s CEO Martin Semmens will continue to run the day-to-day operations of the club, and Sport Republic will be working closely with him and his team to help the club grow.

“Whilst Southampton is Sport Republic’s first acquisition, we expect more investments to follow over the coming years. Our ambition is to build a portfolio of high-influence stakes in football clubs and other sporting assets across the world.

“At the same time, we will also invest in early-stage sports technology companies and use our portfolio to accelerate the development of these companies.

“The acquisition of Southampton is a great first step and we are very excited about the journey ahead.”

But who is Kraft? We’ve looked into more detail about one of the men in charge of Southampton.

Where has Henrik Kraft worked before?

His career started out at Braxton Associates as a strategy consultant. Kraft went on to work for Apax Partners for seven years.

Kraft spent 10 years working at KKR where he was a Partner and head of the Technology and Telecoms team in Europe. He was key in the investments of TDC, Versatel, Visma, and United Group.

Kraft is a keen investor in the technology, telecom, and media industry. He has been in the industry for 20 years, investing originally in companies such as Tonsser, Sportlight, Wave.tv, Oura Ring, Sava Health and MastersApp.

As well as his work with Southampton, Kraft is involved with other football clubs across Europe. Kraft is on the board at Göztepe Spor Kulübü in Turkey and Valenciennes Football Club in France.

Where did Henrik Kraft study?

Kraft went to the University of Oxford. He studied a Masters in Engineering, Economics, and Management. He graduated with a first in the year of 1996.

Alongside his degree in Engineering, Economics, and Management, Kraft has a level 2, 4, and 4 Diploma from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust.

Henrik Kraft’s net worth

Kraft appears to have invested his money very wisely over the last 20 years. Combine this with the high-profile roles he has held across the technology industry, Kraft has built himself a steady pot.

Kraft is worth a reported

How many more clubs does he want to buy?

As previously mentioned, Southampton are just one of the clubs in the Sport Republic group and it seems they have no plans to slow down.

Kraft told The Athletic that he hopes to continue to grow their network in the future and insisted that could be good news for the Saints.

He said: “I used to say that your emotional life quality drops when you have two clubs.

"Because it’s tough to go through a weekend without losing points. But I love it. There is now an opportunity to scale up and build a culture and a central database of intelligence that could benefit multiple clubs.

“I focus a lot on building these structures. We’re not just about buying a portfolio of clubs and then letting them get on with it. We try to build an integrated model where you get synergies and player pathways right. Once that system is operating, it can become a big advantage for those clubs.”