Jeff Luhnow left baseball under something of a cloud after his involvement in the 2019 Houston Astros sign stealing scandal. But now the former management consultant, who won three World Series as general manager of the Astros and St Louis Cardinals using a data-driven approach that was dubbed “Extreme Moneyballâ€, is applying his philosophy to a different sport.
The owner of a network of football clubs that includes Leganés in Spain and the Ligue 1 side Le Havre, Luhnow has big plans to revolutionise the development of players in Africa and provide them with a clearer pathway into Europeâ€s top leagues. “It was pretty clear from the beginning that Africa was going to be the best place for us to find talent that we can integrate into our European clubs,†he says. “Itâ€s not too dissimilar to what I experienced in baseball where a disproportionately large portion of talent comes from places like the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. Africa has 54 countries and a wide diversity of opportunities.
“Thereâ€s a lot of infrastructure challenges because, generally speaking, young athletes in Africa donâ€t have the benefits that the young athletes in Europe or North America have,†Luhnow adds. “So youâ€re starting from a very different point. But what we have proven to ourselves and are starting to prove externally is that there is enormous talent. And if you do it the right way, the benefits to your teams, and to your entire business, can be incredible.â€
It is hoped that the sale of Yan Diomande – an 18-year-old from Ivory Coast who joined Leganés last year and made only 10 appearances for their first team before being sold to RB Leipzig for €20m (£17.4m) in the summer – could prove to be the first of many after the launching of recruitment and development programmes in several African countries, including Ghana and Zambia, during the past five years. Diomande was linked with some of Europeâ€s top sides including Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid after scoring three goals and providing three assists in his past three matches.
“Weâ€ve got more players like that in our pipeline,†says Luhnow, “and we expect to not only have once in a while those types of successful outcomes; we expect to make it an annual event. To have players in our first team from our Africa recruitment project that are helping the team win games.â€
Yan Diomande made 10 appearances for Leganés before being sold to RB Leipzig for €20m (£17.4m). Photograph: Dpa Picture Alliance/Alamy
Luhnow was suspended by the Astros when the sign stealing scandal erupted, before he was subsequently fired. He later filed a $22m lawsuit as part of which he claimed he had been made a scapegoat for others. Six years on he has no regrets about the sharp diversion in career path. “It was about trying to read the signs between the catcher and the pitcher and communicate those to the batter, which has been done over the history of baseball,†says Luhnow. “The way our club did it during that particular season was against the rules, and since I was the general manager, I was held responsible for it.
“Sometimes you look back at things that happened that, at the time, you perceive as negative and they end up being a blessing in disguise. Iâ€d been in baseball for 16 years. I had won 20 championship rings. I had modernised two clubs and was getting the itch to do something else, and I had already started looking at football.â€
Luhnow, who grew up in Mexico before moving to California as a teenager, was persuaded to take the plunge into a new sport after talking to Billy Beane, the former general manager of the Oakland Athletics whose sabermetrics strategy revolutionised baseball and who is now a minority owner at Barnsley and advises the Dutch side AZ. After a failed attempt to invest in Sunderland when they were still in League One, Luhnow admits he “got the bug†and decided to look elsewhere. Having established his company Blue Crow Sports Group, which boasts the former baseball star Alex Rodriguez and several other former athletes as investors, he led the purchase of Cancún in Mexicoâ€s top flight in June 2022 and completed the takeover of Leganés a few weeks later. Blue Crow bought Le Havre in the summer and have big plans for one of Franceâ€s oldest clubs, whose academy has produced Paul Pogba, Riyad Mahrez and Dimitri Payet.
“We want to make Le Havre every English personâ€s second favourite team or favourite team in France, because we were founded by Oxford and Cambridge students,†says Luhnow. “I think thatâ€s where weâ€re going to put our focus. Weâ€re the closest major city to England and we should be every British personâ€s favourite team in France. Thatâ€s our goal.â€
Jeff Luhnow says he was already ‘getting the itch†to leave baseball after the Astros†scandal broke. Photograph: Rob Tringali/MLB Photos/Getty Images
Luhnow is also banking on the initiative that aims to develop the best talent from Africa to propel Blue Crow clubs to new heights. The Dubai-based investment firm 885 Capital bought a majority share in Blue Crow this year and is playing an important role in setting up the network of feeder clubs. “Our plan is to run an elite programme on the ground in Africa,†says the 885 Capital chief executive, Sudeep Ramnani. “The focus is on giving them [African talent] exposure to playing in European football and starting from the age of 14 rather than from the age of 16.
“We donâ€t just want to focus on talent, but also personality development – often you get some great talent that fails because maybe they just havenâ€t had that exposure to the developed world early enough, and they havenâ€t had that kind of training from an educational standpoint.â€
Luhnow is aware of scepticism from Leganés supporters about being part of a multi-club network, especially in light of their relegation from La Liga last season, but he remains confident of achieving success on their part. “My most satisfying moments in sports have been the World Series parades in St Louis and Houston, especially Houston, where they won the first championship ever in history,†he says. “The first championship ever in Cancún, we won and took the trophy through town and just seeing people so excited. And then here at Leganés, when we got promoted to the first division a couple of years ago, itâ€s a town of 200,000. We went to the main square; there were 75,000 people there. People were crying.
“You canâ€t get that in business and technology. You can only get that in sports, and thatâ€s what drives me. So I really appreciated my time in baseball. I love it. I still am involved, talking to people. I track it. But football is where I need to be right now.â€
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