"Moneyball" baseball executive Billy Beane is joining a consortium including Chinese businessman Chien Lee and American investor Paul Conway to acquire English soccer club Barnsley, a source told Reuters on Friday.
The consortium will pay £20 million ($26.78 million) for a 98.5 percent stake in the club from current owner Patrick Cryne, who is terminally ill and said to fans he was "living on borrowed time" in a poignant letter earlier this week.
Beane is a minority owner of MLB's Oakland Athletics.
Chinese businessman Chien Lee, who is majority shareholder at French top tier club Nice, would become the majority shareholder of the club if the deals goes through. American businessman Conway is also a director at Nice.
The club is currently in the second tier of English soccer football, where it has spent most of its 130 years of existence.
