The billionaire who owns so much land he could cover London seven times over

When Brits think of the name Stanley Kroenke, they will probably recognise the American as being the owner of Arsenal.But his ties to the North London club is just a small part of his enormous portfolio.

And this was clear earlier this year when he was named in Land Report's annual list as the largest private landowner in the whole of the US.

The 78-year-old sports mogul made history in December by snapping up a 937,000 acre ranch in New Mexico - taking his land ownership tally across America and Canada to a mindblowing 2.7 million acres.

That amount of land could cover Greater London - 388,000 acres in size - seven times over.

The mind boggling record beat the previous one set by the Emmerson family in California, which owns 2.44 million acres of timberland.

Stan loves his ranches, and he also owns some in Montana and Nevada, as well as buying the famous Waggoner Ranch 10 years ago, which is the biggest piece of unbroken ranchland in Texas, and stretches an impressive 535,000 acres.

And while he has splashed out fortunes on land, according to Forbes, his net worth is a staggering $22.2 billion (£16.3bn). So forking out £105m for Arsenal to sign Declan Rice seems like loose change in comparison.

The businessman also owns 60 million square feet of commercial real estate and he has links to the world's richest family because of his marriage to Ann Walton - an heiress to Walmart whose own net worth, according to Forbes, stands at $14.4billion (£10.7bn)

Stan and Ann have two children together, Whitney Ann and Josh, with the latter being the co-chairman of Arsenal alongside his dad.

And as well as being at the helm of Arsenal, Stan also owns the Los Angeles Rams, the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche and the Colorado Rapids.

The mogul rarely gives interviews and was previously dubbed "silent Stan" because of his desire to stay private.

However, he once spoke to Mirror Sport where he revealed it would be more straightforward to make money outside of the sports industry.

He said: "There are a lot of easier ways, so many easier ways, to make money, I assure you! You guys talk about the downs, maybe that's the nature of it, but if you're just trying to make money there are a lot of easier ways to do it.

"If you look at our history - just go look at our history. We get into these things to try to build them, to try to grow them. You don't see us selling things. You just don't. Go and check us. We are committed long-term."

Kroenke made his comments in 2017 where he clarified that he was "absolutely not" going to sell Arsenal and that his vision was to bring total glory to North London.

He said: "Look, we want to be champions of everything. Premier League, Champions League - we want them all."

And almost a decade later, just as he made history by becoming the largest landowner in the US, his football team may finally be about to make history on the pitch themselves, with their first Premier League title in 22 years within their reach.