AceShowbiz - 50 Cent has started sponsoring an under-14s soccer team. The 48-year-old rap star has agreed to sponsor Rumney AFC, a soccer team based in Cardiff, Wales, after working with one of the parents of the players while he was on tour.

Richie Brown, the coach of the under-14s team, told Sky News, "You expect it to be a 'no' and then when he says 'yes' it's a huge surprise and then you're massively grateful straight away."

Richie suggested that the chart-topping rap star could actually help to take the soccer team, and the women's game more broadly, "to the next level."

He explained, "I've been involved in girls' football for almost ten 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."

50, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, initially agreed to sponsor the team's away jersey. But the rapper subsequently agreed to go one step further.

Richie said, "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."

Richie ultimately hopes that the move will help to raise the profile of the team. He shared, "Hopefully the girls' and women's sections down in south Wales will get a little bit of spotlight and we can raise the profile."