(Bloomberg) -- Major League Soccer’s Philadelphia Union is considering investing in a takeover of Danish club Aalborg BK, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The US club is one of several potential backers of a transaction being put together by SSE22, a Hamburg-based company managed by former German player Thomas Hitzlsperger, according to the people, who asked not to be named discussing ongoing talks.

SSE22 has a 20% stake in Aalborg and announced in March that it intends to increase this to 50.5%.

“We are always evaluating international opportunities and possible partnerships to expand our sporting bandwidth and expertise but have not finalized any transactions yet and cannot comment until we do,” said a spokesperson for Philadelphia Union, which is owned by real estate entrepreneur Jay Sugarman. A representative for SSE22 declined to comment.

American Investors Are Taking Over English Football Everywhere

While US owners have proliferated throughout European football, investments by MLS teams have been rarer, with the so-called multiclub model usually based around a flagship club team such as Manchester City FC. 

Los Angeles FC recently bought a controlling stake in Swiss team, Grasshopper Club Zurich as part of an international expansion plan.

Aalborg, which is based in the Danish city of the same name and has won four national championships, was founded in 1885 by English railroad engineers working in the Nordic country. It was relegated from Denmark’s top flight last year but is on course for promotion back into the league.

The Philadelphia Union currently has a player, Richard Odada, on loan to Aalborg.

SSE22 was created by Hitzlsperger and five other Germans with the aim of investing in and contributing to developing Aalborg. The issue of the new shares will provide Aalborg with proceeds of 45.4 million Danish kroner ($6.6 million), according to an earlier statement.

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--With assistance from Christian Wienberg.

(Updates with full statement in fourth paragraph and Richard Odada in eighth.)

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