Premier League club, Leeds United, has become the first club in the league to go into partnership with Jay Z owned Roc Nation founded in 2008.
The partnership is aimed at promoting Leeds United as a football brand in the United States and Asia. Though the amount the partnership deal worth and the duration of the deal were not made public, a statement by Leeds United noted that the partnership deal shows how ambitious the club is.
Roc Nation started as a music record label and hugely moved into brands management of music stars and sports stars. Jay Z who is famous across the world as a rapper has used his brand to attract other super brands into the agency.
The roster of the agency’s sports division is filled with football stars like Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne, Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku, Chelsea’s Reece James, Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford, Villarreal’s Samuel Chukwueze, and a host of others.
Leeds United is officially the first club the Roc Nation will be working directly with. The newly-promoted Premier League club unveiled the partnership on Saturday by displaying mural on some selected buildings around the city center.
Some of the pictures displayed in the mural included the club’s homegrown midfielder Kalvin Phillips who just enjoyed his first call-up to England’s national team. Others are Leeds United’s legends Lucas Radebe and Albert Johanneson.
Victor Orta, the club’s sporting director told BBC that the mural is “really impressive – it’s a symbol of our club at this moment with Kalvin”.
“It’s a real pleasure for me and the club because it is a symbol of our team and now it is eternal in a wall”, he added.
𝑷𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑾𝒂𝒚 🎨 This mural by @akse_p19 features club legends Albert Johanneson & Lucas Radebe, with current homegrown player @kalvinphillips at the heart of the wall. @RocNation #LUFCxROC pic.twitter.com/QaxdapqGHW
— Leeds United (@LUFC) November 21, 2020
On the club’s deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, Orta said: “It’s a big international brand worldwide. We want to grow in the States, we want to grow in Asia.
“It’s a partnership that shows where Leeds United are now. It shows the ambition of the club to continue growing.”
While commissioning the mural, Roc Nation representative Kelly Hogarth, said the Mural is a way of doing something special for Leeds United’s fans and recognizing some of the prominent figures at the club.
“It’s such a lovely time with Kalvin getting his England national team call-up, just really championing and celebrating figures who have paved the way for our modern-day footballers,” she said.
“This is our first consultancy partnership in the Premier League. We’d had a lot of different discussions with a lot of different clubs, and it took just an hour with Andrea [Radrizzani – Leeds’ owner] and Angus [Kinnear – Leeds’ chief executive] for us to buy into their strategic vision for the club.
“There’s a great blueprint for success and you need a partner who is willing to collaborate and wants to try new things.”
WELCOME TO THE FAMILY 🙌 #LUFCxROC @LUFC pic.twitter.com/QMZfqzWLN5
— Roc Nation (@RocNation) November 21, 2020
