Tom Wagner reveals how involved Tom Brady is at Birmingham City - It may surprise some people | OneFootball

Blues have hugely benefitted from his sporting expertise.

Birmingham City chairman Tom Wagner has revealed the extent to which NFL legend Tom Brady is involved in the operations at St Andrew's.

Getting celebrities and athletes involved in owning English football clubs is a recent trend which, in all fairness, has largely proved to be a successful venture for all involved.

There were those that came before them, but Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds really lit the blue touch paper for this sub-category of football club owners.

After that came JJ Watt's investment in Burnley. A number of professional athletes from across the world have ties to Leeds United thanks to their owners, 49ers Enterprises. Swansea City are the latest EFL club to acquire a big name, with Luka Modric climbing on board in April.

Tom Brady's Birmingham City influence revealed

Arguably the most influential, non-majority owner of them all is Brady - who is widely regarded to be the greatest American Footballer of all time.

He bought his stake in the club before the beginning of the 2023/24 campaign, and, despite owning just 3.3 pence worth of shares, which allow him no voting rights as per Kieran Maguire, he has been heavily involved in Birmingham's rise over the past season.

Wagner, has revealed that Brady helps with everything on the sports performance side, an area of sports which he used to full effect to maximise his 23-season career as an NFL quarterback.

"Tom is engaged 365 days a year, literally," the chairman told iNews. "Not a day goes by where I don’t speak to, Zoom with, or text with Tom on a topic of direct interest with the club.

"His area of focus is sports performance, which includes nutrition, hydration, recovery, the mental philosophy behind success and a winning mentality, culture. Those are all things Tom participates in.

"One of the areas he has been most often misjudged is, during his playing career, his ability to drive culture and to attract players that brought the right winning culture to his organisations. If you need any proof of that, just look at the success, or lack thereof, of the NFL franchises for whom he played after his departure."

Birmingham should maximise Tom Brady's expertise

In a separate interview with The Times, Wagner also revealed that Brady was heavily involved in the decision to appoint Chris Davies as the Birmingham's new manager last summer - in fact he was on the call in which they decided that Davies was the one for them, and that speaks to the chairman's final point from those quotes.

The 47-year-old won't know a whole lot about the beautiful game. What he does know about is sporting excellence, a winning culture and how to create one, arguably better than anybody in history.

He wasn't the best athlete or most gifted player at his position, but he always made sure that his teams were ready and motivated to play, and that he was in the best shape he physically could be. No stone goes unturned with Brady. That is a perfect attitude to have within the walls of St Andrew's.