A separate proposal to take Dumbarton out of administration and pay their creditors in full collapsed in April.
But the club’s joint administrators have revealed that they have “now agreed heads of terms on a deal” to sell to Lapointe.
“Mario Lapointe is a Canadian entrepreneur and business owner with a passion for sport and, in particular, football,” a club website statement said.
“What a Canadian wants with Dumbarton Football Club, I have no idea,” said one sceptical Sons fan of 60 years standing this week.
“I would have thought he would be more interested in ice hockey. Then again Dumbarton have been skating on thin ice financially for years facing one crisis after another.
“I sincerely hope that this prospective new owner is not someone who is more interested in house building than he is in football and that he actually has the money to become the major shareholder.
“Sons need someone who is prepared to invest in the playing side of the game. There must be lots of really good players around at the moment who could take them up the leagues.
“Dumbarton has a proud footballing history. We need someone who cares enough about that to look after it.”
Lapointe, pictured left, is co-owner and technical director of electronics contract manufacturer SMT-ASSY in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, with the company becoming main sponsor of St-Lazare Hudson soccer club in 2013.“The administrators will now work with Mario and his advisors to deliver the transaction by the second week in June, allowing everything to be in place for the new season, planning for which is well under way,” Dumbarton’s statement added.
Dumbarton have been relegated to Scottish League 2, having finished 16 points adrift of Annan Athletic at the foot of the third tier following a 15-point deduction for going into administration.
On being appointed administrator, Quantuma said insolvency was the result of non-receipt of “significant” funds owed from the sale of land in 2021.
Quantuma said Oxford-based businessman Gareth Phillips withdrew his offer last month because of ill health.
The website of Vintage Lapointe is a showcase for a performer who describes himself as a musician, a poet, a story teller, a father, an engineer, a sports coach, a businessman, an entrepreneur, a fragile mind, a writer and a restorer of old cars.
By the end of June the old cars won’t be the only recipients of his tender loving care, according to the National newspaper here in Scotland.
The personal biography will expand to include an interest in restoring the fortunes of one of Scotland’s oldest football clubs.
When Mario Lapointe – Vintage to his friends – agreed Heads of Terms on a deal to save League Two Dumbarton a poster on the Pie and Bovril fan forum spoke of the novelty of finding out that someone keen to take over a small Scottish club had not immediately been exposed as a property shark, a character of dubious legality, a sociopath with a spiteful grudge, or a fantasist.
Over the course of a 30-minute Teams call to Quebec, Herald & Times Sport manages to establish that the son of a truck mechanic father and food-prep cook mother seems to be none of these things.
Enthusiastic, engaging and normal there are, however, two areas which arouse natural curiosity.
Why would an independently wealthy man choose to blow his wealth on a toiling football club in the SPFL with an average home gate of 600, serious financial instability and a long history of owners who saw more value in the stadium land than the football team? And, moreover, how did his artistic alter ego Vintage Lapointe come into being?
“Its unique,’ he explains. “There are so many singers called Lapointe here in Quebec, but none more Vintage than me.
“Besides, the only Mario that really did well with that name are the (F1 racing driver) Andretti and (Canadian ice hockey player) Lemieux. So, Vintage it was.”
An only child, Lapointe grew up playing baseball and hockey, while working part-time at a local grocery store and McDonald’s during his high school and university years.
He went on to earn a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Université de Sherbrooke, founding SMT-ASSY Electronics in 1996.
A father of three boys he dabbled in music for 32 years. Three years ago his marriage ended and he was urged to take writing and singing a little more seriously by friends
“I still had lots to write about and singing was a way to express it. It’s vindictive, it’s loving, it’s painful, it’s family, loyalty, pride, lots of emotions and it’s what I call ‘me’
“Not a great musician, not a great singer, just me doing what I can.”