London — Snoop Dogg has become co-owner of the Welsh football team Swansea City, in an unlikely alliance between the world of rap and professional soccer, the team has announced. The 53-year-old American rap icon joins former Real Madrid stalwart and Croatia World Cup finalist Luka Modric in the club's ownership structure.

Snoop made a surprise appearance on the club's social media channels last week modelling their new home jersey for the 2025-26 season, and the club announced Thursday that he had become an investor.

His involvement comes after American businessmen Brett Cravatt and Jason Cohen took over the club last November.

Swansea will hope that Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, can use his 100 million-plus social media followers to boost the club's profile as it seeks to return to the U.K. Premier League for the first time since being relegated in 2018 to the second-tier EFL Championship league.

Swansea's owners have said they want to generate greater revenue, which would allow them to invest more in new players under the profit and sustainability rules in British football.

The 53-year-old rapper said on the club's website: "My love of football is well known, but it feels special to me that I make my move into club ownership with Swansea City.

The story of the club and the area really struck a chord with me. This is a proud, working class city and club. An underdog that bites back, just like me," said Snoop. "I'm proud to be part of Swansea City."

"To borrow a phrase from Snoop's back catalogue, this announcement is the next episode for Swansea City as we seek to create new opportunities to boost the club's reach and profile," Swansea's owners said in a statement.

"Snoop's colossal global fanbase and audience will certainly help us do that, and he has made clear to us throughout this process just how excited he is at the prospect of joining the club.

"Snoop has openly shared his love of football and his desire to be involved in the game and we expect his involvement to support us putting as competitive a team as possible out on the field."

Swansea's Welsh rivals Wrexham have achieved a meteoric rise to the Championship since Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney purchased the club in 2020.

Snoop's love of sports has been a feature of his cultural phenom for years. He carried the Olympic flame at the Paris Summer Olympics last year, and then stuck around to support Team USA in a number of events.

A decade ago, the rapper founded a youth football league (American football, not soccer) to help get inner-city children in the Los Angeles area into the sport.