Carmelo Anthony bought a Puerto Rican soccer team
Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony is an owner of a NASL team, Puerto Rico FC.
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1 min read
New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony, who is already in the news today because he's partnering with Nickelodeon as the creative director for a line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles products called Turtles By Melo, has announced that he is the owner of Puerto Rico FC, a new team in the North American Soccer League. From ESPN FC's Jeff Carlisle:
"My passion for soccer has always been there," Anthony told ESPN FC in an exclusive interview.
"I just always kept it to myself and among my circle. Going to games, sneaking into games and just watching and being around the sport over the years. The more time I started spending in Puerto Rico over the past six, seven years I realized that there was kind of a void down there on my island. The island didn't really have anything that they could kind of call their own, that they could represent not just on the island but from a global standpoint."
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Anthony insisted that this new venture will not distract him from his day job, playing for the Knicks.
"Basketball is my No. 1 thing," he said. "I'm very hands-on but it's more about taking the time now during the offseason. I spend a lot of time in Puerto Rico training. I'll do like a mini-training camp down there. Right now it's about putting the right people in place so that when I'm back to my regular job, basketball is my main focus. I'll have a solid group of people running [Puerto Rico FC] on a day-to-day basis."
Who knew Anthony was into soccer? This news sort of feels like it came out of nowhere, but no more so than the Ninja Turtles thing. (Anthony is also making a cameo in the upcoming movie.) Perhaps he will start training with Puerto Rico FC on the field, like Steve Nash sometimes does with the Vancouver Whitecaps.
Puerto Rico FC will play its first match in the fall of 2016. Wonder how Anthony and the Knicks will be doing by then.
