Hero Investments has launched a Jersey-based closed ended fund that invests in footballers playing around the world. The fund aims to invest in footballers and their clubs, at a young age, and then earn a return from any transfer fees in the future.

These types of investments are common in South America and parts of Europe. For example, a Portuguese hedge fund bought a 35% stake in the Manchester United player Cristiano Ronaldo when he was a 16-year-old trainee at Sporting Lisbon.

This stake helped Ronaldo with his training and development costs. The hedge fund then took GBP 4.27m of the GBP 12.2m transfer fee when Ronaldo moved from Sporting Lisbon to Manchester United. This meant that the hedge fund made a GBP 3.82m profit on its original GBP 450,000 investment.

The Hero Football fund is managed by Nick Hely-Hutchinson and Damian Roberts. The fund will be advised by football agent Pinhas Zahavi, former English referee David Elleray, and David Griffith-Jones, a barrister and lecturer in sports law.

It has been established under Jersey' s Expert Fund regime. Jersey Trust Company assisted in the structuring of the fund and acts as the managing trustee and administrator. Fund Facts

• Name: The Hero Football Fund
• Aim: Investing in young footballers and their clubs to get a return on capital when clubs do well or the player is sold.
• Domicile: Jersey
• Target size: GBP 100m
• Minimum investment: *GBP 1m
• We can arrange the following:
  *This could be a pooled investment from 10 investors of GBP 100K each