Former Primer Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra is a crafty fella. Despite quitting politics, he has still managed to find his way into newspapers across the world (not just in Thailand) on an almost daily bass. To an outsider, he just looks like a fun-loving type of guy bumbling his way around the world, but to those in Thailand he is perhaps an attention seeking manipulator of people. The Thai traveler once tried to buy Liverpool Football Club and failed; his latest target is Manchester City.

“He is looking to do some business, and it is possible that he will buy a team because he loves football,” said Noppadol Pattama, Thaksin’s lawyer and voice on occasions. For someone who was ousted in a military coup, he seems to be having a whale of a time. His smiling face keeps popping up, and his foreign image is steadily growing. Leaving Thailand seems to have done him no harm.

There are currently some reports that Thaksin has already purchased Manchester City for six billion baht, although these are yet to be confirmed. Mohamed Al Fayaed, owner of Fulham Football Club, has reportedly been helping out his old Thai buddy in his quest to infiltrate the British Football Association.

With former football player Ray Ranson’s 90 million pound bid for Man City looking likely to be rejected, Thaksin may well be the front runner in this bizarre chase. The other group is an unnamed American consortium, but I am not convinced that fans of Man City would really warm to the idea of an American takeover.

In other news linking Britain (where Thaksin is based) and Thailand, it has emerged that on May 4 there will be an anti-coup protest in London. This is certainly interesting as it shows Thai people’s discontent from across the world. Whether or not Thaksin’s influence has anything to do with the protest is unclear.

Sadly for sports fans, Thaksin appears to have let his golf game go. As AFP reported today from the opening of a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, “his time since the end of his political career appeared not to have been spent on improving his golf game, as his drive ducked left in an awful hook.”

Techno' tags: Man City, Thailand, Bangkok, Thaksin Shinawatra