Footy great Paul Gallen reveals why an American tech billionaire is flying two top officials from an NRL club across the USA in his private jet

NRL legend Paul Gallen revealed he was asked to meet a tech billionaire while in the United States this week as part of a sponsorship push by Cronulla Sharks powerbrokers.

The former club captain, who won a premiership as captain in 2016, confirmed Sharks chief executive Dino Mezzatesta and chairman Steve Mace will catch up with the potential sponsor in person.

Gallen, who became a professional boxer after retiring from football in 2019, said he was originally going to join the couple, but other commitments made that impossible.

The former NSW Blues Origin captain will be in Las Vegas in the coming days as part of Channel Nine’s rugby league coverage ahead of the historic season opener at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday AEDT.

“Dino Mezzatesta and Steve Mace, as far as I know, will fly on a private jet from Las Vegas to New York, spend a couple of days in New York and meet this particular person,” Gallen said. 2GB.

“I hope they try to get some sponsorship, I don’t know if they will get it or not.”

Gallen, who declined to name the mystery man, added: “Apparently he has a lot of dollars and is a big Sharkies fan… he lives there in America, he’s involved in IT.”

The retired striker is a regular on Levy’s radio show each week, as well as Nine. 100% football and numerous NRL broadcasts throughout the season.

Cronulla face a tough task in their own NRL season opener – they face the New Zealand Warriors in Auckland on March 8.

Questions remain about the Sharks’ ability to produce when it matters: a field goal by Roosters youngster Sam Walker knocked them out of the finals race in the first week of last season, and in 2022 they went out in straight sets after the losses to the Cowboys and Rabbitohs. .

Ominously, Craig Fitzgibbon’s men also lost seven of their 10 games against teams that finished in the NRL’s top eight last year.

Running back Nicho Hynes emphasized that his teammates were eager to shed the “chokers” label and “prove a lot of people wrong” at the same time in 2024.