Elon Musk Says Tweet About Buying Manchester United Was a Joke, Surprising No One

Ryan Babel, a former winger for Liverpool, joked—we think—that he needed to buy Manchester United stock in light of Musk’s announcements.

“Now i need to buy Man United stock got dammit lol,” Babel said. (The club’s stock, traded on the New York Stock Exchange, had not made significant moves as of Wednesday morning.)

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Meanwhile, Al Foran, a self-described “massive” Manchester United Fan and host of the soccer news podcast The Goalmouth, implored Musk to save the team.

“Please Save Manchester United, @elonmusk,” Foran tweeted.

The Premier League team is currently in last place this season, and fans are planning a protest against its owners, the American Glazer family, next week.

To no one’s surprise, though, Musk wasn’t serious. He shot down rumors roughly four hours after his original tweet.

“No, this is a long-running joke on Twitter. I’m not buying any sports teams,” Musk tweeted, adding shortly after: “Although, if it were any team, it would be Man U. They were my fav team as a kid.”

For its part, Manchester United told CNN Business that it does not comment on rumors and speculation. Yet, after Musk published his tweets, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday morning that the Glazer family would consider selling a minority stake in the club.

In case anyone was left wondering, the billionaire also clarified that he was “not buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in, despite the extreme popularity of such a move.”

Update 8/17/2022, 10:16 a.m. ET: This post has been updated with additional information from Bloomberg.