Nineteen years have passed since he descended upon Chelsea and transformed the landscape of English football and yet Roman Abramovich remains distant, mostly silent and cloaked in secrecy.
He has given virtually none of himself to public scrutiny from his takeover at Stamford Bridge in 2003 to Saturday evening, when he issued a statement to say he was placing stewardship of the club into the hands of trustees.
It was characteristically brief and low on detail, as is ever the case with Abramovich, a man who rarely utters a word in public and, if he does, it comes in this fashion, through a cold and carefully scripted corporate release, often in tandem with one of the good causes he is backing with his billions.