Football Italia published an interview with Estrella Football Group co-founder and President David Dwinger about the group's acquisition of Pro Patria in July and its multi-club model. The report says Pro Patria is an Italian Serie D club based in Busto Arsizio, in the region of Lombardy, and Estrella's third club after Cascais SAD and Carvoeiro United.
How the acquisition process developed
David Dwinger said Estrella started building criteria for club acquisitions after about 100 clubs signed up when the company announced it was looking to buy another club after Cascais.
Dwinger said, "We started off buying Cascais because it was just a childhood dream to have a football club."
He also said Estrella now has a tool containing information on over 3,000 clubs, predominantly from Europe and predominantly from football countries.
Why Pro Patria appealed
Dwinger said he liked Pro Patria's history, its proximity to Milan, the context around Luca Bassi, and the club's potential and infrastructure.
He said, "I really liked the history as well as the close proximity to Milan. There’s, of course, a lot of football going on there."
Dwinger said Luca Bassi is "our equal partner", is from the city and is emotionally attached to Pro Patria.
Role for Pro Patria in the model
Dwinger said Pro Patria sits between a performance club and an academy club in Estrella's model. He said Estrella wants its clubs to be known for giving out youth contracts and wants clubs like Pro Patria to become really stable and not opportunistic.
Dwinger said, "It should be a Serie C club, of course. And we see the potential to bring it at least to Serie B. Probably not in the next two years. But it has that potential."
Structure and expansion plans
The report says Estrella's management team includes founding partner Alessandro Nuccetelli, Estrella co-founder and CEO Xander Czaikowski, and Global Sports Director Cristiano Piccini.
Dwinger said, "We’ve built an application called ClubOS. It’s an operating system for a football club."
He also said Estrella is working on a club in Austria and the UK, and said there are very early conversations about improving the pitch at Pro Patria and possible partnership talks with TenCate.
Dwinger said, "Estrella’s goal is to buy five clubs per year. We believe that with our horizontal MCO, we’re the world’s first horizontal MCO, and that if we put the clubs next to each other, rather than stacking them on top of each other, this one becomes less important than the top one. We want to do it like this. That means that with every club we add, we add something else to the flywheel."