After the successful take over of French steel company Arcelor, the world's richest Indian, Laxmi Mittal, is eyeing another grand acquisition. This time it is in the field of sport.

The 'Iron Man of India' has emerged a contender to buy English Premiership football club Birmingham City after making an initial inquiry, The Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday.

The  56-year-old Mittal, at 19.25-billion-pounds twice as rich as Roman Abramovich, the Russian millionaire owner of Chelsea, is yet to follow up on his preliminary inquiry, the newspaper said.

Besides Mittal, a London-based NRI, another unnamed business magnate from the Far East is also said to be interested in the club and likely to make a formal bid later this week.

David Sullivan and David and Ralph Gold, owners of Birmingham, which caused a flutter by getting promoted to the top league of the competition, are looking to sell the club and would be glad to finish with a speedy handover.

Besides Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur are the other English Premiership clubs that have been bought over by business tycoons in recent years.