"I'm Buying Manchester United": How Elon Musk Sent Fans Into A Frenzy With Joke Tweet

Manchester United fans were sent into a frenzy in the early hours of Wednesday morning after the world's richest man said he was buying the Premier League club.

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and the CEO of Tesla, has become well-known in recent months for cracking jokes on Twitter.

Shortly before 1 am on Wednesday (UK time), he wrote: "To be clear, I support the left half of the Republican Party and the right half of the Democratic Party!"

But it was his own reply to this tweet that went truly viral.

Moments later, Musk added: "Also, I'm buying Manchester United ur welcome".

Many United fans are desperate for their club to find new ownership, with the Glazer family becoming increasingly unpopular as the team's on-field slump worsens.

It is widely felt among the United fanbase that more investment is needed at Old Trafford.

So the idea of the world's richest man, worth $270.1 billion according to Forbes, potentially replacing the current owners, naturally got many fans excited.

Elon Musk got a lot of Manchester United fans very excited with a tweet this week

IMAGO/PA Images/Brian Lawless

Within hours, Musk's tweet had generated more than 750,000 reactions, including 40,000 comments.

One read: "Elon Musk buying Manchester United is literally my dream!"

That dream died four and a half hours after it began. Replying to a tweet asking if he was serious, Musk wrote: "No, this is a long-running joke on Twitter. I'm not buying any sports teams."

But the 51-year-old billionaire added that if he ever were to buy a sports team, "it would be Man U. They were my fav team as a kid."

Earlier this year, Forbes valued Manchester United at $4.6 billion, with Barcelona ($5 billion) and Real Madrid ($5.1 billion) the only soccer clubs said to be worth more.