Thomas Müller has never done things quietly, and his latest move off the pitch is no exception. The Vancouver Whitecaps forward is now part-owner of a football club — this time in Portugal.
Müller, Mats Hummels, and Lucas Hernandez are part of an international consortium that has bought a majority stake in Portuguese top-flight club Estrela da Amadora. Yann Sommer is also part of the group, which has taken a 90% stake in the club. The deal, reportedly worth around €40 million, was completed through the club’s Sociedade Anónima Desportiva. Müller played alongside the other three at various points during his long career at Bayern Munich, and friendship — not just business sense — clearly runs through this venture. Estrela’s own history has been anything but smooth: the club went insolvent in 2011 and only returned to Portugal’s top flight in 2023 after merging with Sintra, finishing 15th in an 18-team league last season. With this ownership group behind it, that’s about to change.
Ownership is just the latest line on a very busy off-pitch résumé. During this year’s World Cup, Müller worked as a pundit for Deutsche Telekom’s MagentaTV, offering analysis, live reactions, and tactical insight from behind the microphone rather than on the field. He’s also become one of German football’s most in-demand faces for brands: Müller is LEGO’s first official brand ambassador for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, a role playful enough that he later became LEGO’s first official “trainer” in the DACH region, bringing families together for creative play sessions. He’s also the new brand ambassador for Bavarian brewery ERDINGER Weissbräu — a partnership that’s followed him to Vancouver, where ERDINGER is now the Whitecaps’ official import beer, and a longtime face of Adidas Football, the brand that outfits him on the pitch and helped bring him to MLS in the first place.
It’s a fitting side project for a player whose competitive instincts never seem to switch off. I’ve had the chance to watch Thomas play for the Whitecaps for a full year now, and what’s struck me most isn’t just the football IQ — it’s the leadership. From his very first weeks in Vancouver, he carried himself like a captain: vocal, encouraging, quick to guide younger teammates through a play or talk them up after a mistake. He’s the kind of player who makes everyone around him better, on and off the ball.
Watching him take on a club ownership stake overseas, while juggling a TV gig and a shelf full of global endorsements, feels like a natural extension of that same instinct — someone who wants to build things, not just show up for them.
Vancouver got lucky. Estrela da Amadora just did too.
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