Birmingham City has been raising eyebrows around the world for about 18 months by welcoming an American football giant through the doors of the St Andrew stadium when it was announced that the legend of the NFL Tom Brady had bought a minority participation (which would be 3.3%) in the NFL Club.
Unfortunately, the sudden presence of a winner of the Super Bowl seven times in the middle was not sufficient to prevent the Blues from suffering from relegation of the championship last season. However, after having passed large in successive transfer windows, Birmingham is now responsible for the three highest costs paid for a transfer to the history of the One: Jay Stansfield (17.8 million euros), Christoph Klarer (4.2 million euros) and Willum Thór Willumsson (€ 4 million). They are at the top of Ligue 1 and seem well by way to return directly to the second level at the first time.
To fully assess the feelings of supporters towards their large-scale artea and the quarter of the Buccaneers of Tampa Bay standing among the inhabitants.
Brady was brought to the Birmingham Front Office Front by the owners of the Shelby Companies LTD club, which are led by the American financier Tom Wagner. Installed in Birmingham in 2023, Shelby Companies is a subsidiary of Wagner’s Knighthead Investment Group and was appointed in reference to the successful television series “Peaky Blinders”, which took place in the second city of England.
“Investment abroad of the United States makes a huge difference for the club,” a fan of Birmingham told ESPN before Lincoln’s match. “You can see from today that it is a cup match in Low League and that everyone presents themselves.”
While the fortunes have been mixed during Brady’s mandate so far, it seems that the consensus among the city supporters is that the 47 -year -old has had a positive impact since his unlikely arrival in August 2023, a few months Only after his retirement from the NFL for a second and the last time.
“There have been starting problems at first, but we have been having trouble for over 10 years and you cannot transform an oil tanker towards the night,” said another optimistic supporter of Birmingham. “Fans are still revealed because it doesn’t bother us. We can accept some errors along the way because the club’s transformation was incredible. Whatever relegation, this interested interested fans.
“There are more people at the stadium now (in Ligue 1) than last season, so we are definitely turning. I think we will be back in the upper half of the championship next year!”
Even the relegation to the third level did not dissuade the majority of fans of the city, who saw their team for the last time in the Premier League in 2010-11, the same season that the Blues shocked Arsenal 2-1 to win The Ligue Cup final in Wembley. ESPN supporters have spoken to a large agreed that the arrival of Brady’s marquee is among the most positive and exciting things that have happened to the club since the years.
“Brady is a proven winner and he hopes that he has instilled this here in Birmingham City. I hope we will be able to win as many leagues and trophies as him,” said a fan, who admitted that he did not had not followed the NFL of Brady’s NFL career closely. “I am not massive on my NFL but his name is very familiar. I do not look at American football. But I always knew who Tom Brady was, which shows that he always has a great presence in the United Kingdom
“Birmingham fans wanted investments for a long time, so I think we would have taken anything, but having Brady as a face of the club is brilliant. It shows that we have high caliber people who are trying to get our club Where we want to be.
Another fan said: “Tom Brady’s involvement really sums up what they are trying to do and really shows that the club is on an ascending trajectory. You see investments entering the team and you can see that we are going better because of this. “
We still do not know how much Brady is involved on a daily basis, although when he made his investment, it has also been announced that he would become president of the club’s advisory council. He has been a sporadic presence at st Andrew’s so far but made several conspicuous appearances in the terraces, not Least when het took His Seat Alongside David Beckham for the So-Called “Hollywood Derby” Against Fellow Celebrity-Owned Wrexham (Owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mcelhenney) in Ligue 1 last September.
“Even if it is only its image, the Brady association will only be a good thing,” said a fan of Birmingham which was just wearing a hats of woolly green bay packers to protect it from the cold winter. “We were here for the Wrexham match when Brady sat in the paddocks (the lower level of the main stand) next to Beckham. The atmosphere was simply incredible. He showed the club’s trajectory.
“It’s great to have a name like Brady involved and it will sting a lot of ears in the United States who will want to know who is the club that the biggest star in the NFL of all time is involved.”
Asked about his choice of head covering, given the long association of Brady with the Patriots, the fan revealed that his decision to support the packers was almost as cursed as his decision to follow the blues.
“Curiously, I chose to support the packers because they won the Super Bowl the same year that the Blues were relegated from the Premier League and I wanted to cheer up by following a winning team,” -It declared. “Packers haven’t won the Super Bowl since then. It’s just my chance!”
