50 Cent is sponsoring an under-14 girls football team in Wales
Yep, you read this headline correctly. The iconic American rapper and actor, 50 Cent, is the official sponsor of AFC Rumney, a Welsh football team for under-14 girls. The unlikely sponsor emerged after a parent of one of the young players was working with the rapper while he was on tour.
It’s been reported that 50 Cent’s sponsorship will see the team play in jerseys with both his and G-Unit’s name on them—the hip-hop group formed by longtime friends and East Coast rappers 50 himself, Tony Yayo, and Lloyd Banks.
Richie Brown, head of the girls’ section and coach of the under-14 and under-17 girls’ teams at the Cardiff-based club told Sky News, “I’ve been involved in girls’ football for almost 10 years now so I’m promoting it this side, trying to do the best I possibly can, and when you’ve got someone as high profile a name as him, you just know he’s going to take it to the next level.”
Brown continued, “Once we’d got that away kit, the money was sent over, we paid for it all, ordered it all, got it delivered, we’d asked him then if he would be happy to go for tracksuits for the team as well, which again he agreed and we kind of went through the same process for the tracksuits then.”
It should be noted, however, that Welsh football is no stranger to some celebrity interest after Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought Wrexham AFC back in 2020. In the rest of the UK, Motörhead, The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, Iron Maiden, and Mogwai have all helped out their respective local teams in the past, while Ed Sheeran is currently the main sponsor of Championship side Ipswich Town.
@wrexham_afc Stand aside, Season Two of Welcome to Wrexham is nearly upon us #WxmAFC #WrexhamFX #RyanReynolds #RobMcElhenney
♬ original sound - Wrexham AFC
Brown is hoping the same kind of attention Wrexham received will be drawn to his own team and women’s football in general: “Hopefully the girls’ and women’s sections down in South Wales will get a little bit of spotlight and we can raise the profile.”
As for what 50 Cent has been up to, football aside, the rapper has spent 2023 celebrating the 20th anniversary of his studio debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin’. One date of his live tour was called off due to high heat while another left a man injured after 50 mistakenly threw a microphone at him. Oopsie.
