Tacopina e l’acquisto della Roma

Ecco il testo di un articolo apparso sul New York Post di oggi in cui si afferma che l’avvocato Joseph Tacopina è vicino all’acquisto della Roma. (QUI la pagina originale)

 

Ciao Roma

High-powered New York criminal defense lawyer Joseph Tacopina is on the verge of buying AS Roma - Rome’s storied pro soccer team, The Post has learned.

Tacopina, who’s being backed by international financier George Soros, is jetting to Rome today to put the finishing touches on the deal, which has been in the works for months, according to a source familiar with the deal.

“Joe is purchasing the Roma soccer team with George Soros as his main investor, and [Tacopina's] going to be the president of the team,” the source said.

“This is just huge. In Italy, soccer’s everything, and in Rome the Roma team’s the biggest thing right now,” the source said. “Tacopina’s very excited. It’s a dream come true.”

Tacopina, who has been frequently flying to Italy to negotiate the purchase, “had to speak with the highest levels of the Italian government to get this approved,” the source said.

 

The dapper Manhattan litigator - who will maintain his law practice - expects to close the purchase of Roma “by the end of the week,” the source said.

The publicly held team’s majority shareholders, the Sensi family, have agreed to the deal at a time when its patriarch is ailing.

The purchase price was not known.

But a source said Tacopina intends to aggressively pursue marketing ventures to boost the team’s financial fortunes.

“This team, as huge as it is already, can be that much bigger,” the source said.

Tacopina, who frequently appears as a legal expert on television talk shows, has represented a slew of big-name clients, among them ex-NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik, accused cop killer and “A Bronx Tale” actor Lillo Brancato, and Joran van der Sloot, who was suspected in the mysterious disappearance of American high-school girl Natalee Holloway in Aruba.

The lawyer, whose father was born in Rome, has long been a major fan of Roma and attended soccer’s World Cup final in Berlin in 2006.

One of soccer-mad Italy’s most popular teams, Roma just finished the season in second place behind Inter Milan in the nation’s top division, Serie A. The 81-year-old squad has won three Serie A titles in its history, and frequently competes at the highest levels of European tournaments.

Unlike England’s Premier League, where foreign ownership of major teams has become common, Italy’s top squads tend to be owned by Italians, so the purchase by Tacopina and Soros, who is Hungarian by birth, is a significant change.

But Tacopina, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, may get a warm reception because he holds Italian citizenship and has a law office in Milan.