Billionaire who began building his empire by washing dishes

Shahid Khan’s Wembley swoop is one chapter in career of businessman who dares to dream big

About 18 months ago, Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic was talking with Shahid Khan, the club’s owner, when the conversation turned briefly towards Khan’s other business interests. This was hardly unusual, after all, Jokanovic knows well that Fulham is by no means Khan’s only venture, yet there was one scheme in particular that lodged itself in the Serbian’s memory. Khan wanted to buy Wembley Stadium.

Jokanovic, a busy man, did not give this much thought until yesterday, when he was informed of the news by Fulham’s media team. “OK,” he replied. “I know.”

It is tempting to wonder whether Jokanovic was among the first to be told of the grand plan. Tempting, but doubtful. The truth is that Khan had been considering this move for several years before he raised the idea with Martin Glenn, the Football Association chief executive, at the Super Bowl in Houston last February.

Khan, 67, is well liked at Fulham, where his standing will be boosted further if Jokanovic can take an attractive, passing side back into the Premier League. Tonight’s match against relegated Sunderland provides a chance to leapfrog Cardiff City into the Championship’s second automatic promotion spot, although Khan – who will be in the United States for the NFL draft – may be quietly salivating over the prospect of a play-off final at Wembley.

The vile response to him buying an NFL team only made him dig in

“Fulham is not the only business for this man,” Jokanovic said. “He wants to take another step. He wants to be successful.”

Khan, it barely needs saying, has already enjoyed eye-watering success. As well as Fulham, he owns the NFL’S Jacksonville Jaguars, the Four Seasons Hotel Toronto and a 300-foot superyacht, Kismet, that is often spotted in the Thames. He is worth more than £5billion, according to Forbes, which is some return from the $500 he had to his name when he arrived in the US aged 16.

Khan had travelled from Pakistan, where he was born to a mother who was a maths teacher and a father who sold surveying equipment. His entrepreneurial instincts were evident from childhood, when he sold radios and charged his friends to borrow his comic books.

Once in the US, where he had come to study mechanical engineering, Khan found work scrubbing dishes before taking a job at Flex-n-gate, an automotive manufacturing company, alongside his studies. After graduating, he became the company’s engineering manager and then left to create Bumper Works, where he designed a one-piece bumper that is still considered the industry standard.