Tom Brady has sensationally quit Birmingham City just three years after becoming involved with the Championship club.
The Blues said in a statement, released Monday night: ‘Birmingham City Football Club expresses its sincere gratitude to Tom Brady for his involvement with and unwavering support for the club over the last three years.
‘It was amazing to have someone with Tom’s experience and passion associated with the club, and the club looks forward to continuing on that foundation from the training ground to the Birmingham community.
The NFL icon joined Birmingham City as a minority investor as part of a takeover spearheaded by billionaire Tom Wagner’s Knighthead Capital in the summer of 2023.
Brady’s presence in the English football pyramid was heralded with a five-part documentary on the new ownership’s plan to revamp the Midlands club, titled: ‘Built in Birmingham: Brady and the Blues’.
Within the five-part Amazon series, Brady notably lambasted Wayne Rooney for his work ethic after installing him briefly in the dugout after despatching previous head coach John Eustace.
The fly-on-the-wall documentary showed Brady visiting the Birmingham training ground to observe Rooney’s team meeting and training session. While driving away, he tells his business manager Ben Rawitz: ‘I’m a little worried about our head coach’s work ethic.’
Rawitz replies: ‘Comes across as lackadaisical.’
The documentary later saw Brady admit his error in replacing Eustace with the former England international and reveal that he was warned against making ‘sweeping changes’ so early in his time with the club.
‘I had good advice, “Don’t go in there and make sweeping changes. You guys have time”,’ said Brady. ‘But we made sweeping changes that put us in decline. That was our doing.’
Under the aegis of Brady and Knighthead Capital, Birmingham City have launched what the group see as a 20-year megaproject, with £3billion earmarked for investment in a ‘Sports Quarter’ in the city.
The 48-acre site in the east of the city is set to feature a new 60,000-seater stadium and training ground above a network of underground transport tunnels.
