Inside Lincoln City: The U.S.-owned club with Landon Donovan as investor and where data and AI are king

Lincoln, England — On a mist-cooled Monday evening at LNER Stadium, Ryan One’s 74th-minute winner against Reading did more than spark pandemonium in the Co-op Stand. It guaranteed Lincoln City promotion to the English Championship for the first time since 1958, extended an unbeaten run to 23 matches, and underlined one of the most improbable rises in modern football: a club that began the League One campaign with the division’s seventh-lowest budget will next season line up in the second tier, 19 points clear of third-placed Bradford City with five games still to play.

The triumph is the product of an American-funded, data-obsessed model that has turned England’s oldest professional venue into a living laboratory for marginal gains. Former San Diego Padres co-owner Ron Fowler controls the largest shareholding; Oklahoma energy investor Harvey Jabara is a key partner; and the most recognisable face on the cap table is U.S. men’s national-team record goalscorer Landon Donovan, investor and strategic advisor, who visits the cathedral city two or three times a season.

“It’s not the England most people know,” Donovan told The Athletic. “Rolling hills, a beautiful cathedral, a university vibe. The club is shaping the town, and the town is shaping the club.”

That symbiosis has produced a season of statistical supremacy: most points, most goals, fewest conceded in League One, all delivered on a £5 million wage budget — barely a third of the division’s heavy spenders. Lincoln’s highest-paid player earns £3,500 a week; the gap between top and bottom salaries is “very small”, sporting director Jez George says, fostering a collective in which no individual has reached double-digit league goals. “Just a bunch of people who contribute,” Donovan notes approvingly.

The recruitment room is where the revolution is most visible. Analysts purchase data from Impect covering eight to ten European leagues; a staffer fluent in Python writes bespoke algorithms to flag targets who fit Lincoln’s defined player profile. Ukrainian midfielder Ivan Varfolomeev, signed last August for a club-record £400,000 from Slovan Liberec, emerged from that code. So did Fulham academy graduate George Wickens, signed on a free after loan spells at Wealdstone and Ross County, and Jack Moylan, plucked from the League of Ireland.

Once the spreadsheet sings, the human work begins: live scouting, personality audits, cultural fit interviews. “We’re not trying to pay the most,” George explains. “We’re trying to offer the best environment to develop and move on.” Sales of more than £3 million over the past three seasons — largely to Championship clubs — prove the pathway works.

The on-field blueprint is equally deliberate. Head coach Michael Skubala, 43, hired after a five-interview process that began while he was coaching England’s futsal side, has built the division’s lowest-possession side, predicated on high pressing and dead-ball dominance. Twenty-six of Lincoln’s 77 goals have come from set pieces; last season the ratio was 30 of 64. The club spent £10,000 to access Insight Sport’s AI-driven library of millions of set-piece clips, allowing analysts to craft routines that see Lincoln score once every 16 corners compared to the league average of 33. Goalkeeping coach David Preece and an ever-changing cast of aerial targets rehearse variations so obsessively that bonus clauses are weighted toward set-piece success.

Opponents have noticed: teams increasingly pick taller line-ups and abandon their usual build-up patterns, unwittingly ceding initiative. Lincoln have scored first in 75-80% of league fixtures and led for 52% of total minutes, while trailing only 8% of the time.

The infrastructure supporting this edge is a £1.3 million training complex, funded by the proceeds of the Imps’ 2016-17 FA Cup quarter-final run. George keeps a rolling database of future hires for every department; when Rangers poached set-piece specialist Scott Fry in November, Lincoln simply promoted the next analyst in line. “The structure beats every individual,” George insists.

Promotion brings fresh financial realities. Lincoln lost £3 million in 2023-24 despite prudent spending; Championship clubs routinely burn multiples of that. Donovan’s priority is survival, not celebration. “It’s not about going up,” he stresses. “It’s about staying up.” George agrees: “We can’t have a personality transplant. We mustn’t throw away what served us.”

Next season the algorithms will be stress-tested against clubs receiving parachute payments and buoyed by global revenues. Yet the ethos forged in the shadow of Lincoln Cathedral — data-driven, community-anchored, collectively ruthless — is unlikely to change. After 65 years, Lincoln City are back in the second tier, convinced that intelligence, not investment, will keep them there.