Rory McIlroy rejected Leeds investment opportunity as he has eyes on Manchester United stake

Rory McIlroy revealed that he was offered the chance to invest in Leeds United… but admitted he had to turn the chance down.

McIlroy has dipped his toe into sports team ownership with the investment into Formula 1 team Alpine, alongside Anthony Joshua, Trent Alexander Arnold, Juan Mata and NFL stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.

They are part of a £173million strategic investment into Alpine, led by consortium Otro Capital.

The 34-year-old admitted he also had eyes on a small investment of a Premier League team, but so far has not had the opportunity.

“Sports team ownership used to be limited to private equity and people who had a ton of money but now sports stars are becoming more savvy,†said McIlroy.

“I would have loved to have taken 0.00001 per cent of Manchester United when Jim Ratcliffe bought in. If another opportunity comes my way I will look at it.

“I would love to be able to own a tiny percentage of the club I grew up cheering on as a boy. That would be very cool. It is not something that has come across our table as of yet.

“But there is Tom Brady at Birmingham and there are few golfers – Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas – invested with the 49ers Group, who own a slice of Leeds. They asked me if I wanted to come on board and I said as a Man United fan I cannot go anywhere near that!â€

Ratcliffe is set to acquire a 25 per cent stake in United from the Glazers, who will remain the majority shareholders.

talkSPORT understands that the billionaire's partial takeover is still likely to take several weeks to go through.