Welsh football has another American celebrity investor after rapper 50 Cent agreed to sponsor the AFC Rumney’s girls under-14s team.
The Cardiff-based side will now have their away shirts and tracksuits adorned with the G-Unit brand – a reference to the East Coast American hip-hop group which included 50 Cent as well as Tony Yayo and Lloyd Banks.
While Humphrey Ker might have been the architect behind Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s takeover of Wrexham in November 2020, the credit for AFC Rumney’s unlikely sponsorship deal goes to one of the players’ parents.
Having worked alongside 50 cent on his recent tour, the father of one of the team’s players was successful in convincing the American rapper to sponsor their kits ahead of their first away game of the new season.
The team’s manager, Richie Brown shared the news on Facebook: “We feel absolutely over the moon that our u14s Girls have been sponsored by world-known superstar actor/music producer 50 Cent and G Unit.
“He has provided our girls with a brand new, top-quality away kit which we look forward to wearing this season. He has also been extremely generous by providing our whole team with brand-new club tracksuits.
“Thank you so much for your support, also a massive thank you to John Hall for securing the sponsorship for us.”
Speaking further to BBC News, Brown said that while the kids were said to be “buzzing” about the partnership, the news went down as an even bigger hit with the other parents involved in the team.
“I’m sure more of them know who he is than the players because of their ages, but the buzz around the team and the whole club really is amazing and it’s all down to him,” he added.
“At first when you tell anybody they don’t believe it, they just say ‘no way, there’s no chance that’s going to happen, he’s too big of a superstar’.
“It’s huge for grassroots football teams to get people and businesses to support us to be able to get better things.”
50 Cent – real name Curtis James Jackson III – rose to prominence in the early 2000s with his debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ and has gone on to enjoy a hugely successful career as an artist, actor and producer.
