Chelsea owner and Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is now citizen of Portugal
Russian oligarch and Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich has been granted Portugal citizenship, the country's government confirmed on Thursday (December 23).
FollowRussian oligarch and Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich has been granted Portugal citizenship, the country's government confirmed on Thursday (December 23). The billionaire has added the European Union member country's passport to his existing Russian and Israeli ones.
A Portugal justice ministry spokesman said, "The Institute of Registers & Notaries confirms the existence of a procedure for naturalisation in the name of Roman Abramovich."
The spokesman added that Abramovich proved he is a descendant of the Portuguese Sephardi Jews through a certificate delivered by Israelite community of Porto. The spokesman added that the Chelsea football club owner's bid received a favourable decision on April 13, 2021.
Roman Abramovich's case came under a Portuguese law that offers naturalisation to descendants of Sephardi Jews, who were expuled from the Iberian peninsula during the medieval Inquisition.
Since the law was passed 7 years ago, thousands of Israeli Jews have been granted citizenship in Portugal. Such applications have seen a significant rise in the country since a similar citizenship offer to Sephardi Jews came to an end in Spain in 2019.
Roman Abramovich has in the past donated money towards several projects honouring the legacy of Portuguese Sephardi Jews in Germany's Hamburg. Although there is a little known history of Sephardi Jews in Russia, Abramovich is a common surname of Ashkenazi Jewish origin.
Abramovich, whose net worth is now estimated to be $14.3 billion, made his fortune in Russia's oil industry in the 1990s. In 2003, the billionaire bought the Chelsea football club. From 2000 to 2008, Abramovich served as a regional governor in Russia and took Israeli citizenship in 2018. He is also ranked 142nd in Forbes magazine's 2021 list of the globe's billionaires.
On Wednesday (December 22), Abramovich received an apology from HarperCollins over defamatory allegations. The publisher had issued a book that included the claim that the Chelsea owner bought the London football club on the orders of Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
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