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Video - billionaire owner's entrance into changing room will both surprise and delight

By Online Editors
Billionaire owner Jacky Lorenzetti makes his entrance

When you're a billionaire club owner like Jacky Lorenzetti, you make an entrance anyway you please.

And that's exactly what Racing's Swiss majority owner did when he made his way into the changing rooms in the bowls of the U Arena in Nanterre. He envisioned the stadium and built it, so he effectively does what he pleases.

The 'grand' entrance was caught on camera by Canal Plus in France.

Lorenzetti is a mercurial figure at the bests of time. He wasn't a rugby fan growing up. Brought up in Switzerland and graduating from hotel school in Lausanne he understandably wasn’t exposed to the game.

JACKY LORENZETTI. PHOTO / GETTY

After founding Foncia, which since 2006 has been Europe’s biggest real estate company, he married his wife in France and caught the bug from her brothers. He was soon so in love with the game that he bought a 62 percent controlling share in Racing Club 92, then a second division French team.

Now however, they’re anything but second rate. After taking the reins at the club Lorenzetti has built two state of the art training centres, brought in the world’s best players and catapulted Les Ciels et Blancs to the top of European rugby.

While the recent fallen through merger with Stade Francais almost certainly would’ve brought even further domination, Lorenzetti’s finances have still been the source of Racing’s successes and sit as the archetypal example of the power of deep pockets in the Top 14.

Racing 92 president Jacky Lorenzetti (right) and Stade Francais' Thomas Savare