Elon Musk, long regarded as untouchable at the summit of the global rich list, found himself toppled this month, and the man who did it has a surprising link to English football. Musk, whose fortune Forbes pegged at a staggering $425 billion earlier this year, slipped after a wobble in his valuation. Into the void stepped Oracle kingpin Larry Ellison, who saw his wealth skyrocket on the back of a stock market surge.

Tech titans trade blows at the top

Ellison’s incredible rise came midweek when his fortune ballooned by a scarcely believable $89 billion, taking his net worth to $393 billion. The bump catapulted him above Musk and fellow billionaires Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, and Jeff Bezos. The reason? Oracle shares went through the roof, soaring more than 40% after the company unveiled a golden outlook for its cloud infrastructure division and revealed blockbuster deals in the artificial intelligence sector.

Eliison and the Aston Villa what if

According totheDaily Express, back in 2016, Ellison was reported to have held advanced talks about buying Aston Villa. The Midlands club had just been dumped out of the Premier League after 29 years in the top flight, and their American owner, Randy Lerner, was ready to sell. Villa supporters, furious at the decline and desperate for fresh investment, were licking their lips at the prospect of one of the richest men on Earth swooping in. But while talks took place, Ellison never put pen to paper.

Missed opportunity at Villa Park

Instead, Villa were sold to Chinese businessman Tony Xia for £76 million ($104m) that same summer. Xia’s reign was short-lived, lasting just three years before new ownership arrived under NSWE, now V Sports, who still control the club today. Fans often wonder what might have been had Ellison completed the deal. Would the club have become the poster child for Silicon Valley’s takeover of football? Those questions will forever linger in the “what if” column.

Villa focused on the here and now

While billionaires juggle fortunes in the stratosphere, Aston Villa have more immediate matters at hand. Unai Emery’s men face Brentford in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday before a Premier League trip to Sunderland on Sunday. (GOAL)