An Irish company listed on the US stock exchange intends to acquire a first division soccer club in Mozambique in the coming months, to develop what it calls "social impact soccer", said one of the founders.

The executive chairman of the board of Brera Holdings, Daniel McClory, told the Lusa news agency that he was confident that "by the end of June" a letter of intent or an acquisition agreement would be announced in Mozambique.

The two hypotheses being considered are the establishment of a new team or the acquisition of an existing team.

"We spent some time there, met with the Federation and spoke to a couple of club owners. Things take time, but I think we'll be able to make progress in the first half of this year," he told Lusa.

Mozambique was identified as one of the priority targets in the international expansion plans of this holding company, which dispersed capital through an Initial Public Offering at the end of January on the Nasdaq index, raising 7.5 million dollars (seven million euros).

Angola, Morocco, Gambia and Zambia are other African countries in the sights of this group of American and Italian investors, who began the project last year with the acquisition of the Brera FC club in Italy.

Founded in 2000, it is considered "Milan's third team", after Milan FC and Inter Milan, but instead of Serie A it competes at regional amateur level.

The investors behind Brera Holdings want to use the Italian club as a springboard to buy a series of teams competing in the top flight in small European territories such as Macedonia, Gibraltar, Andorra, San Marino or Liechtenstein.

On Wednesday it announced a commitment to buy the Fudbalski Klub Akademija Pandev in North Macedonia, which in future will be renamed Brera.

In the next few months it will be time to buy a club in Mozambique and take over the management of another in Argentina, in this case in the third division.

"We're not trying to get to Serie A or the Champions League or anything like that. It's too expensive, it takes too long, it's probably too difficult," McClory said, ruling out investing in countries like Portugal, Spain or the UK.

The strategy, he explained, is to invest in "cheap clubs" with loyal fans and access to competitions with high prizes, such as European competitions, in order to attract good sponsorship contracts.

In the case of investments in Africa and South America, the potential lies in developing a network for recruiting young talent that can be sold on at advantageous commissions.

Other forms of monetization include setting up soccer schools and offering consultancy services, while maintaining social purpose programs and supporting local communities.

McClory, an American with a background in various investment firms, identifies the model of British club Manchester City, whose holding company owns ten other teams in countries such as France, China, India, Japan and Bolivia, as an inspiration.

"We have every intention of becoming profitable and giving our investors a return. We're simply doing it from a much more modest point of view," he stressed.

One of the investors in Brera Holdings is Chris Gardner, the American millionaire entrepreneur who wrote the autobiography "In Search of Happiness", the movie adaptation of which featured Will Smith as the lead actor.

For McClory, Gardner, who is also known for being a philanthropist, "personifies the social impact" of this project.

In a veiled reference to the owners of clubs like Manchester United and Liverpool, he makes a point of differentiating himself from "those irrational Americans who show up in Europe and spend hundreds of millions of dollars and think they're going to change everything".