Peterborough owner eyes US football team ownership due to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo links

Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami move has prompted plans for Peterborough owner Darragh MacAnthony to buy a football club in the USA.

MacAnthony became the youngest chairman in the Football League when took over the now-League One club in 2006, aged just 30.

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Upon taking the reins he told Posh fans that he would take the club from League Two to the Championship in two seasons and successfully delivered on his promise.

MacAnthony oversaw Peterborough’s attempt to gain promotion again last season but were beaten in the play-off semi-final to an Oxford United side who went on to book their place in the Championship.

But now the Irishman is plotting a move to take his football business ventures to the United States and is hopeful of buying a club within the next two years in America’s equivalent of the Championship - the United Soccer League (USL).

When asked if the United States is the growth market, MacAnthony told talkSPORT: “Massively. I’m going to buy a USL club potentially in the next two years because I think with the World Cup on the horizon and the Olympics on the horizon out there, it's already becoming a top-four sport.

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“Parents are spending fortunes sending their eight, nine and ten-year-olds to weekend camps of football, money is going into it.

“They still have it wrong in MLS where they don’t have a pyramid.

“If somebody in the MLS convinces those owners to open up the pyramid like we have in England, that would be the second-most watched football around the world.

When pressed on why he appears set on purchasing an USL team, MacAnthony pointed to the growth of ‘soccer’ in the US brought about by the recent arrival of Messi.

“I believe valuations are taking off in the next ten years with the Apple deal with the Messi effect and Cristiano Ronaldo will probably go out there when he’s finished in Saudi Arabia,” he continued.

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“Football will be on the map in America in a big way and I believe if I get a USL club right now for £8-10million, even though it's not in MLS, that could be worth double or triple in the next five years.

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“Not only that, it will open up the floodgates to get some American talent into the UK and vice-versa.”