Madrid has added a different kind of star to its football landscape, with Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander joining Atlético de Madrid’s shareholder group. The Canadian, a two-time consecutive NBA Most Valuable Player, becomes an investor in a club whose identity has long been built around endurance, ambition and a defiant place among Europe’s established powers.
Gilgeous-Alexander, 28, said he was proud to begin his connection with Atlético at ownership level. “I am thrilled to officially join Atlético de Madrid’s shareholder group,” he said. “This is a club with a long history at the highest level of European football, and I am grateful for the chance to be involved in its future.”
Atlético presented the partnership as one founded on shared principles, pointing to the player’s alignment with values including ambition, excellence and the belief that achievement must be earned through hard work.
The investment brings one of basketball’s most decorated current players into the orbit of the Spanish club. Gilgeous-Alexander won the NBA title with Oklahoma City in 2025 and was named Finals MVP that year, alongside claiming league MVP honours in back-to-back seasons.
A record-setting NBA profile
His most recent numbers underline why Atlético have highlighted his sporting stature. During the 2025-26 NBA campaign, Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 31.1 points per game while converting 55.3% of his field-goal attempts. That made him the first perimeter player in league history to average at least 30 points while shooting 55% or better from the field.
He also completed a fourth successive season with averages of 30 points and 50% shooting, a standard previously matched among perimeter players only by Michael Jordan. His regular-season run of games with at least 20 points reached 140 by the end of the season, moving beyond Wilt Chamberlain’s former NBA record of 126 consecutive games.
For Atlético, the arrival of Gilgeous-Alexander adds another international sporting figure to the club’s ownership circle, linking the red-and-white side of Madrid with an athlete whose career has been defined by sustained production at the highest level.
