In Lyon, American businessman John Dexter presents himself as an ambitious “builder”.

In just one year, he has become the trusted actor of the football world. Since August 2021, John Dexter has multiplied the club’s acquisitions. On Monday, June 20, the American businessman came to add an additional piece globally with the announcement that he will enter into exclusive negotiations for the acquisition of 67% of the shares of the OL Group, the structure that controls Olympique Lyonnais (OL). The football network he is building.

The multi-billionaire’s “collection” already includes clubs in Botafogo, Brazil and Molenbeek, Belgium, where he is a majority shareholder. If he fails to buy Newcastle, Brentford, Watford or Benfica, he will join David Blitzer, co-owner of Crystal Palace in England, to become another rich American.

Former “Hollywood Virtual Reality Guru”

However, it was on a board rather than a ball at his feet that Missouri native John Dexter, 65, was known for himself in his youth in Florida: He was a skilled skateboarder, an expert in freestyle acrobatics. Stop in the 1980s.

If he’s made a name for himself in business — as well as a fortune — he owes it to new technologies, the magazine says. Forbes 2016 describes it “The Hollywood Virtual Reality Guru”.

Trained as a computer scientist, he first invested in special effects: since 2006, he headed the company Digital Domain, bought from the director of Blockbuster. TitanicJames Cameron – and a 2009 Oscar winner for the film’s special effects The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

But the adventure ended in bankruptcy in 2012. “a failure” He mentioned this on Tuesday during a press conference in Lyon, the day after it was announced that the deal to buy OL had been completed.

John Dexter later returned to Hologram through another company, Pulse Evolution. Rapper Tupac at the California Coachella festival in 2012 or the King of Pop Michael Jackson at the Billboard Music Awards in 2014 used this innovative technology to resurrect dead stars.

“I brought resources, support, capital…”

In Lyon, from the beginning, as a joke, his mother’s French origin – who “I’m ashamed he doesn’t speak the language today.” -, the businessman introduced himself first “A Builder” instead of “Only as an investor”. He tried to reassure supporters with a long, sometimes confused, rant.

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