Manchester United (MANU) Shares Slip As Jose Mourinho Reportedly To Replace Louis Van Gaal As Team Manager

Shares in English soccer giant Manchester United were lower early Monday following media reports that the club is set to replace its current manager with former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho.

The Premier League club's U.S.-listed shares were lower in the early going, having closed Friday up 2.4 percent.

Manchester United's main stock market listing is in New York, although it has a secondary, and less widely traded, share listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Its Frankfurt-listed shares slid earlier in the day.

British media reported that Mourinho, 53, will take over at Manchester United even though Dutchman Louis van Gaal, who steered United to an extra-time FA Cup final win over Crystal Palace on Saturday, had a year left on his contract.

Mourinho, sacked by Chelsea in December after his second spell in charge of the West London club, has also managed Porto, Inter Milan and Real Madrid, winning Europe's premier Champions League tournament with both Porto and Inter Milan.

Manchester United was bought in 2005 for about 800 million pounds ($1.3 billion) by the Glazer family, owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise in the National Football League.

Shares in Manchester United were listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012 in an initial public offering.

According to Thomson Reuters data, the Glazers' Red Football LLC investment vehicle has a 20 percent stake in the club's New York-listed shares.

U.S. investment firm Baron Capital Management, Lansdowne Partners, Jupiter Asset Management and Fidelity are among other major institutional investors.

The club's New York shares have fallen by roughly 6 percent so far in 2016.

Earlier in May, Manchester United reported record third-quarter revenues and higher earnings.

However, Van Gaal's failure to qualify for the Champions League is likely to have proved costly.

Manchester United said earlier this month that not getting into the Champions League would cost it more than 30 million pounds ($43.5 million) in revenue next season.

($1 = 0.6901 pounds)

Data from Reuters were used to report this story.