Roc Nation Sports
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Jay-Z has kept a largely low profile on the music front but the Brooklyn superstar remains active on the scene in other ways lately. Over the weekend, Jay-Z was seen at London’s Wembley Stadium and linked up with Real Madrid star Vinicius Jr., who is signed to Hov’s sports agency.
Vinicius Jr., 23, is a Brazilian soccer forward for Real Madrid and his team locked horns with Borussia Dortmund for the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League final.
Ahead of the game, Jay-Z dapped up Vinicius Jr., who scored a goal in the match alongside Real Madrid right-back defender Dani Carvajal with the team defeating Borussia Dortmund 2-0 for the coveted title. Among the celebrations with his Real Madrid teammates, Vini, as he’s also known, took a moment to take some photos with Jay-Z before hoisting the trophy with his fellow players.
In the summer of 2023, Roc Nation Sports acquired Brazilian soccer agency TFM which counted Vinicius Jr. as a client along with other association football stars such as Gabriel Martinelli, who plays for Arsenal.
Congratulations are in order for Real Madrid for capturing the UEFA Champions League championship win.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: Stephane Cardinale – Corbis / Getty
One would think that being a billionaire would have Jay-Z just kicking back and enjoying the empire that he’s built for himself but nope! The man is still out here making big time deals and continuing to invest for himself and his family.
According to Digital Music News, Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports has just come to terms with Italy’s top soccer league, Series A, to create a “strategic partnership” that’ll have Roc Nation Sports promoting the Italian league throughout North America via events, digital content, and marketing activations as only they can. Y’all know Roc Nation Sports got the juice for that kind of stuff. It’s Jay-Z, b.
Digital Music News reports:
Roc Nation and Serie A have had a working partnership since 2019, and in 2020, Roc Nation inked a deal with Serie A side AC Milan to host an event to raise support for workers during the height of the COVID pandemic. The event was hosted by DJ Khaled and featured performances from artists like Alicia Keys and Kelly Rowland, with all proceeds going to charity.
“We are super excited to help Serie A expand its brand throughout America while helping to develop meaningful commercial partnerships along with enhanced brand visibility that will lead to continued growth for one of the world’s premier football leagues,” says Roc Nation president Michael Yormark.
“We spent some time together in New York, and then he pushed me to return to Inter,” said Lukaku. “He’s a person who follows football a lot; he always follows Inter. He’s truly a nice person.”
Y’all know that money that the sport of soccer generates worldwide ain’t no joke either. Jay is smart to get into that arena. Cristiano Ronaldo earns $214 million per year for God’s sake! They know its money to be had in that field that most Americans tend to overlook. Soccer’s just not our thing, but with Roc Nation putting some muscle behind Series A, y’all might become a bit more familiar with the sport in the coming future.
Still, they might have their work cut out for them as Italian soccer does have an issue with racism as many of their Black players have been subjected to nasty racial rhetoric on the field. It got to the point where Roc Nation President, Michael Yormark, felt compelled to address it in a statement saying, “The Italian authorities must use this opportunity to tackle racism rather than punish the victim of the abuse. I am certain that the footballing world shares the same sentiment.”
We’ll have to wait and see how this new venture pans out for Jay and his Roc Nation conglomerate.
What do y’all think of Roc Nation getting down with an Italian soccer league? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Romelu Lukaku, a striker for Serie A club Inter Milan in Italy, is the first Premier League player to sign with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports and has amassed fame for his exploits on the pitch. However, Romelu Lukaku, like many Black footballers before him, has endured racist taunts and Roc Nation Sports took out an ad in an Italian newspaper demanding they do better.
TMZ was the first to report on Roc Nation Sports taking out the ad in the Italian sports news daily, La Gazzetta dello Sport, which defended Romelu Lukaku and other Black footballers from the racist taunts from fans in attendance at matches.
On Tuesday (April 4), Inter Milan played against Juventus F.C. and fans in the stands made monkey noises toward Lukaku. The ad singles out how this practice has been allowed to endure for years during football (soccer) matches.
From the ad:
In professional football, Black players have been subjected to hatred during professional football games. The hatred has displayed itself in the form of monkey chants, racial slurs and banana peels tossed at the best players in the world, as the world watches, as the children watch, as the players’ families watch.
No one has faced any consequences for this heinous behavior. Nothing has changed. No action has been taken.
Roc Nation Sports put out an accompanying video demanding that fans stop the racist taunts, clearly singling out that this has been an issue for years in the game.
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Photo: Mondadori Portfolio / Getty
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