Dan Friedkin: the billionaire with his eye set on Everton

Dan Friedkin acquired his wealth through his family’s car and autoparts empire and now has his sights set on rescuing the troubled Merseyside football club. Will fans be happy?

Dan Friedkin Ryan Friedkin during match between AS Roma vs Shakhtar Donetsk
(Image credit: Getty Images)

“You might not recognise Dan Friedkin if you bumped into him,” observed the Houston Chronicle earlier this year. Although the billionaire businessman is “one of the wealthiest people” in the city (Forbes puts his worth at $6.4 billion), he keeps a relatively low profile. In Europe, on the other hand, his star is rising and rising – because of his love of the beautiful game. Having bought the Italian club AS Roma in 2020, Friedkin has now emerged as a potential white knight for Britain’s troubled Everton FC, says the Financial Times. Earlier this month he started talks to buy the heavily indebted club from its current owner, Farhad Moshiri, after another US suitor – the troubled Miami investment group 777 Partners – failed to complete its takeover. 

If Friedkin wins the club, fans can expect a dash of derring-do. Although his wealth derives from an unglamorous car and autoparts empire, he is also a Hollywood producer and “stunt pilot” with a passion for collecting vintage planes. When the director of Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan, was casting around for Spitfires to feature in the film, he discovered that Friedkin owned six of them – and went on to secure his services as the pilot of the aeroplane, ostensibly flown by actor Tom Hardy, that made a dramatic landing on Dunkirk beach. Friedkin later won an award for “best speciality stunt” for the feat. 

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Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.

She has edited corporate publications for accountants BDO, business psychologists YSC Consulting, and the law firm Stephenson Harwood – also enjoying a stint as a researcher for the due diligence department of a global risk advisory firm.

Her sole book to date, Stay or Go? (2016), rehearsed the arguments on both sides of the EU referendum.

She lives in north London, has a degree in modern history from Trinity College, Oxford, and is currently learning to play the drums.