Cal Crutchlow reveals which Premier League football team he nearly bought

Cal Crutchlow, Britain’s most successful MotoGP rider since Barry Sheene, has recalled the time he was offered the chance to buy his beloved Coventry City football club.

Crutchlow reached his MotoGP peak in 2016, when he became a premier class race winner for the first time. Crutchlow’s best moments in the sport came with Honda, winning two races that season, and another in 2018. All three of his MotoGP wins came aboard the LCR Honda RC213V, although Crutchlow’s journey to winning Grand Prix races might have been very different had it not been for a knee injury.

Growing up, Crutchlow had trials with both Coventry City and Aston Villa, before switching to motorcycle racing due to the above-mentioned injury.

That appeared to mark the end of Crutchlow’s connection with football, however, when he was competing at the very top of MotoGP, he was then asked if he wanted to buy Coventry City, an offer he ultimately refused. Now led by English footballing great Frank Lampard, Coventry City, who were competing down in League Two (England’s fourth tier of professional football) only a few years ago, are stepping up to the Premier League this season after winning the EFL Championship in 2025/26. 

Speaking to SunSport about the opportunity to own the club, Crutchlow said: 

“I was at Coventry for a few years, and then I had some injury in my knee, and then I decided to race a motorcycle at the time. So whether I could have been playing football, I don’t know. But I had some good years playing. I love Coventry City as a club.

“Many, many years ago, when I started to do well in MotoGP, I actually got asked if I wanted to buy the club. But I didn’t at the time because I was going racing MotoGP. And now they’re in the Premier League… an astonishing turnaround.”

The love for football has continued within the Crutchlow family since this happened, as the Englishman’s daughter, Willow, has now taken up the sport. 

Crutchlow’s daughter is 10 years old, and he admitted that seeing her play football instead of taking up motorcycle racing is his preferred wish. 

Crutchlow added:

“She plays football, and she loves football. She’s brilliant at it—she’s super fast. If she could play football seven days a week, she would. So we have to try and hold her back a little bit, and I’m glad that that is not motorcycle racing. That’s not to say that I don’t want to get people into motorcycle racing, kids and girls, I do.

“But I just don’t want my own daughter to do it because I’ve seen the ups and the downs of it, like any sport. You know, any sport is like that. But I love that she likes football. I used to play football before I raced motorcycles, so I fully support her in whatever she wants to do.”

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