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Controversial soccer club owner Massimo Cellino sells waterfront Key Biscayne mansion for $15M

Cellino bought the house under construction in the 2008 financial crisis for $6M

Massimo Cellino and 766 Harbor Drive in Key Biscayne (Getty Images, Compass)
Massimo Cellino and 766 Harbor Drive in Key Biscayne (Getty Images, Compass)

Controversial Italian soccer club owner Massimo Cellino and his wife sold their waterfront Key Biscayne mansion for $14.9 million.

Property records show Karalis LLC, an entity managed by Massimo Cellino, his wife Francesca Boero, and his daughter Eleonora Cellino, sold the home at 766 Harbor Drive to Casa Bianca 0405 LLC, a Delaware corporation. Casa Bianca 0405 is registered to A Registered Agent Inc. The true buyer is unknown.

Jonathan Alfonso of Portal Real Estate represented the sellers. An agent is not listed for the buyer.

Cellino bought the 9,848-square-foot, five-bedroom, five-bathroom mansion in 2008 for $6 million, records show. It was built in 2005 and was still under construction when Cellino and his family bought it, according to Alfonso. The 0.4-acre estate has 100 feet of water frontage in Hurricane Harbor and a pool.

“When they bought it they had to put a lot of money into the house to finish it,” Alfonso said.

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Cellino was the longtime owner of Cagliari Calcio, an Italian football club based in Cagliari, Sardinia. He sold the club in 2014 after 22 years, about the time that he made a contested bid to buy a controlling stake of the English Leeds United Football Club, according to the Guardian.

A legal battle ensued when the Football League rejected Cellino’s proposal, citing a previous fraud conviction and an outstanding 600,000 euro fine from an Italian court, Reuters reported. Cellino’s purchase of Leeds was eventually approved, followed by a tumultuous three years of ownership that involved three separate bans from the league, according to ESPN.

Eleonora Cellino studied at the university in Leeds until 2015, when she left due to constant harassment by fans, The Tab reported. Cellino sold Leeds to fellow Italian businessman Andrea Radrizzani in 2017, and now owns Brescia Calcio in Brescia, Lombardy, according to SportsPro.

Among other recent waterfront sales in Key Biscayne, the former CEO of the French vaccine manufacturer Sanofi bought a waterfront home for $7.5 million in October. The same month, a Spanish media executive once caught in the 2015 FIFA World Cup scandal sold a nearby waterfront property for $8.3 million. In August, developer Eric Soulavy of Blue Jay Capital and his wife Cristina Soulavy sold a waterfront home on the island for $9.1 million.

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Home SalesKey BiscayneWaterfront Properties