Profile

The beguiling tale starts with genuinely abject poverty and extreme ill health in the back streets of the East End of London in the austerity of the war years, and concludes with an extensive business empire, private helicopters and jets, and a magnificent mansion in the heart of the Surrey countryside.

David Gold has risen above all the challenges life has thrown at him -including anti-semitism - to become one of the richest men in Britain.

Most importantly to Gold, he also won a significant personal battle over his despised father, who refused him the chance of becoming a professional footballer with his beloved West Ham, when he became proud chairman of Birmingham City Football Club.

As a small, skinny, undernourished fifteen-year-old David Gold had dreams of playing for his local football club. West Ham United. To his huge distress his father Godfrey blocked his way but the entrepreneurial businessman is now the charismatic chairman of Premier League Birmingham City. Along with younger brother Ralph he owns Gold Group International, one of the most profitable private businesses in the United Kingdom. It is the parent company of retailer Ann Summers, lingerie chain Knickerbox, executive jet charter company Gold Air International, and the brothers share ownership with David Sullivan in Sport Newspapers. In May 2005 he bought the oldest Surviving FA Cup trophy for almost half a million pounds at auction to prevent it going to Germany.