Football might have less popularity in India as compared to cricket, but the game has earned India-born steel baron Lakshmi Mittal a place in the world's richest soccer club owner list. In a list released by American business publication Forbes, Mittal has been named as the No.1 in the ranking of world's 10 richest owners of professional soccer clubs. He is the only person in the list having Indian connection.

 

Forbes said in a report that, Lakshmi Mittal, operator of the world's largest steel company ArcelorMittal, is the richest, despite his team not being worth all that much. Mittal is a stakeholder in Queen's Park Rangers, a team that doesn't even play in England's top league. Earlier, in its annual ranking of the world's richest people released last month, Forbes had named Mittal at the eighth place with a net worth of $ 19.3 billion.

 

As his net worth plunged by a massive 60 per cent, Mittal has moved down from his fourth position a year ago. Like Mittal, most of other billionaire owners of soccer clubs have also witnessed a sharp jolt of plunging fortunes. But it cannot be attributed to their soccer team ownership.