These are critical days for Inter owner Steven Zhang. He has until Tuesday to come up with €375 million to repay his debt to Oaktree or risk losing the club to the American asset management firm.
With the clock ticking, Zhang is increasingly under pressure to get his ongoing negotiations with Pimco over the line. However, according to Calciomercato, the last round of talks with the Californian conglomerate has failed to produce the desired effects.
May 20 is the deadline day, and there’s no wriggle room anymore, though the Inter chief hopes to push back the date for a few days. The million-dollar question is, could he pull off in a matter of days what he couldn’t in the past few months?
As it’s becoming more likely that Zhang will fall short of his commitments to Oaktree, the club’s immediate future is in the balance. The Chinese businessman’s idea was to stay at the helm of Inter and sell it only for an obscene amount of money.
But he could end up empty-handed. Despite Oaktree’s lack of ambition to enter the realm of football, the company will seize Inter as collateral unless Zhang miraculously raises the funds to settle his debt by Tuesday. That scenario now looks far-fetched.
Conspiracy theorists believe there’s already a buyer behind Oaktree waiting in the wings. In that case, Inter will have a new owner next season, making fans wonder how that would affect the club.
Despite his financial shortcomings, Zhang has been passionate about Inter, always working in the club’s best interest. But if the Americans enter the picture, Nerazzurri could face the same fate as Chelsea – a limitless budget manipulated by clueless management.
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