Thomas Hitlsperger is the former German international footballer who played for several leading British and European clubs during a career that took him to Aston Villa, VFB Stuttgart, Lazio, Everton and West Ham, culminating in over 100 Premier League appearances and 52 caps for Germany. He was director of football and then CEO of Stuttgart and now balances media work with a business career that combines football and food. He is part of the ownership group of Danish club Aalborg, having bought 20% of the shares via Sports Strategy Excellence 22. He's also the proprietor of one of the most storied French restaurants in Soho, L’Escargot, where this conversation took place - and we thank Gary Linke for the introduction to Thomas. In 2014, Hitzlsperger announced publicly that he was gay and has been a vocal campaigner for LGBTQ+ issues, making his views on sport's relationship with Saudi Arabia particularly relevant. This podcast is sponsored by SportAccord World Sport and Business Summit, which is taking place in the UK this year at Birmingham’s ICC. From 7 to 11 April global leaders and senior execs from over 125 International Sport Federations, the IOC, rights holders, professional leagues, host cities and major event organising committees from all continents will be meeting to make decisions that will shape the future of sport. With a thought-provoking conference programme, busy exhibition and a host of networking events, evening receptions and cultural activities SportAccord is your chance to organise a year’s worth of meetings in a week with executives from across the global sport ecosystem. With senior execs from FIBA to FORTNITE, from FIA to Kansas City Chiefs don’t miss the chance to rub shoulders with the worlds sports and business leaders. SportAccord are offering Unofficial Partner listeners a discount of 10%, just click on the link in the show notes or in the newsletter to get your Unofficial Partner 10% discount …and just to note, Unofficial Partner will be at SportAccord so see you there! More information at sportaccord.sport Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartner We publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 300 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series, you can reach us via the website.