What do Tupac, a Brazilian football club, and a virtual reality billionaire have in common?
One man: John Textor.
Known as the "crazy genius" who brought digital Tupac to life and now owns a multi-club football empire, John Textor’s journey is one of the strangest—and most fascinating—in modern sports and tech.
🎥 From Digital Ghosts to Billion-Dollar Deals
John Textor started his career producing digital humans.
Remember the hologram of Tupac Shakur at Coachella in 2012? That was Textor’s company. He later went on to recreate Michael Jackson’s posthumous performance at the Billboard Awards in 2014.
Textor led the charge in turning holograms into entertainment. He co-founded Facebank and merged it with streaming platform fuboTV, eventually launching the brand into a multi-billion dollar IPO.
⚽ Now He Owns Football Clubs?!
Yes, seriously.
John Textor is now the owner or major stakeholder in four major football clubs:
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Olympique Lyonnais 🇫🇷 (France)
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Crystal Palace 🏴 (England – Premier League)
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Botafogo 🇧🇷 (Brazil)
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RWD Molenbeek 🇧🇪 (Belgium)
He has since formed Eagle Football Holdings, a company that consolidates his ownerships under one umbrella. This makes him one of the few individuals to hold multi-club ownership across continents.
🚨 UEFA Trouble and Sudden Sales
Recently, Textor found himself in a legal and regulatory bind.
UEFA warned that multi-club ownership could violate European competition rules. This pushed him to consider selling his Crystal Palace stake, reportedly for £190 million, to Woody Johnson (yes, the former U.S. ambassador and New York Jets owner!).
And all of this while his Brazilian club Botafogo shocked the world by defeating PSG in a Club World Cup match—a surreal underdog win.
🛹 Skateboarding, Startups, and Stadiums
Oh, and did we mention? John Textor was a professional skateboarder in his teens and even once defeated legendary skater Rodney Mullen.
From skateboarding, to digital Tupac, to owning a football empire… that’s the kind of resume you don’t see every day.
🧩 Why He’s “Factually Weird”
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Built billion-dollar companies around virtual humans
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Owns football clubs across 4 countries
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Was a pro skater
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Balances fame, regulation, and sports glory—sometimes all in one week
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Celebrated a real-world football win just months after producing a digital ghost concert
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