Canadian entrepreneur Steve Nijjar, right, and Brampton Deputy Mayor Harkirat Singh, hold a Racing Madrid FC jersey. Nijjar is co-owner of the Spanish team, which he hopes to help rise up from the lower tiers of Spanish soccer.HO/The Canadian Press
At first glance, the similarities between Ryan Reynolds and former Canadian soccer player Steve Nijjar are readily apparent.
Both have spent time on the silver screen, both have branched out into entrepreneurial ventures, and both are now the proud owners of European soccer clubs. But, according to Nijjar, that’s pretty much where the parallels end.
“Honestly, I think Ryan Reynolds is just hilarious,” he says of the Deadpool actor. “He’s just so funny. But he’s richer, he’s way richer than I am. … It’s David and Goliath if I had to compare myself obviously with Wrexham and Ryan.”
Most North Americans had no idea where the Welsh mining town of Wrexham was before Reynolds and business partner Rob McElhenney bought the local team three years ago and featured it in a reality show, Welcome to Wrexham.
Fortunately, Nijjar will have no such geographical-awareness issues with his own round-ball venture. However, he will have to deal with some heated competition in a slightly more crowded soccer market.
Playing in the shadow of 14-time European champion Real Madrid, as well as famous rival Atletico, his club Racing Madrid FC is an oft-overlooked sibling, currently residing in the sixth tier of Spanish soccer.
In fact, until Nijjar and his business partner Morris Pagniello bought the club a year ago, the franchise didn’t even share the same name as its more famous neighbours. The team was originally called Cenafe Club, but Nijjar was adamant that Madrid had to be there.
“I said listen, we need Madrid. Madrid is it,” the 57-year-old says. “Madrid is a powerful name when it comes to football. Let’s just call it Racing Madrid.”
As it later turned out, Racing Madrid – or Racing Club de Madrid to give it its proper name – was also the name of a club that played in the Spanish capital from 1914 to 1932.
Entering the new season – Racing Madrid’s first game is Sept. 10 – Nijjar is enthusiastic. He’s happy to admit that he’s a very hands-on owner, and after the team fell short of its promotion goals last campaign, he wasted little time replacing the entire coaching staff, and has added payroll in rebuilding the squad.
“I wasn’t too happy with the vision that they had [compared to] the vision that I have for the club and the way of thinking,” he says. “But now we’ve got players coming from the second and third division coming down playing for us because now they understand exactly what our project is all about.”
That project is the realization of a dream for Nijjar, who was born in India but moved to Canada when he was seven. After harbouring his own dreams of a professional soccer career, he moved to England and had tryouts with Chelsea, Wolves and Queen’s Park Rangers, before returning to Ontario to play for the Toronto Blizzard.
And though he originally wanted to own a club in the English leagues – just like Reynolds – the fact that his son Tejpal is a goalkeeper in the academy of La Liga club Rayo Vallecano made him change course, for now.
“I have a history with England,” he says. “I have a story with England that I haven’t written the ending yet.”
Growing up as an immigrant in Nobleton, Ont., north of Toronto, Nijjar’s introduction to soccer was challenging, and it took time for him to carve out his own space.
“I find it very difficult even here in Canada to fit into the game because you have the Italians, you have the Portuguese, they all do things and where do I fit in?” he says. “I never thought that I fitted in the game because I’m supposed to be an accountant, engineer, doctor, lawyer or taxi driver.”
After his playing career ended, Nijjar got into boxing – he once fought on the same card as former heavyweight champion Trevor Berbick – and purchased the Brampton franchise for the Canadian Professional Soccer League, coaching the Hitmen for two seasons. And it was his love of soccer that got him into the acting business, too, producing and acting in the 1995 film, The Final Goal. He has since gone on to operate a security business, as well as a recreational sports facility in Niagara.
Nijjar declines to mention how much he and Pagniello paid for the club, but says they deliberately targeted a lower-division team with the aim of guiding it all the way up to La Liga and eventually qualifying for the big European competitions – the Europa and Champions Leagues.
“That’s the challenge,” he says. “I mean, I could easily have gone out there like people did for the Ottawa Senators, got a lot of people together and buy a second-division club for €70-million, €80-million, but where’s the challenge in that?”
Whatever he paid, he didn’t get much for his money: no stadium, no training facility, just a licence for the team, with Nijjar currently in negotiations to play at a 3,000-seat stadium in suburban Madrid.
That’s in stark comparison with what Reynolds got when he bought Wrexham, which included the 10,000-seat Racecourse Ground, the world’s oldest stadium that still plays host to international matches.
“We got the club with zero base and we were really behind the 8-ball but this year we’re pushing for promotion,” he says. “But Ryan, I’ve learned a lot from him. He’s an absolute marketing machine when it comes to Wrexham and rightfully so.
“Look at him – he’s a star. They’re used to eating their steak dinners and caviar every day where we’re looking at it saying, okay, ‘Where’s the Burger King special?’”
While promotion is the main goal for this season, Nijjar also wants the club to eventually act as an incubator for Canadian talent, hoping to have one or two on the team each season. The team recently welcomed some non-playing Canadian talent on board – as well as a bit of added star power – with comedian Russell Peters joining the ownership group last month.
And after shooting the pilot for a reality show last season, Nijjar is aiming to produce a full series this year, hoping to follow in the footsteps of Welcome to Wrexham, and having a promotion party to capture at season’s end.
“Once that hits, I’m hoping something will click and somebody will support us and hopefully – I hate to say this – we’ll become the Wrexham of Spain.”