Snoop Dogg makes a splash at Swansea as Championship tie ends 1-1 | OneFootball

Snoop Dogg’s visit lit up Swansea on Tuesday, the American rapper and minority shareholder drawing the spotlight at a low-key Championship meeting with Preston North End.

According to Le Progres, he stopped in Wales days after leaving Italy, where he was a headline presence for NBC during the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, having bought a minority stake in the Swans last summer.

He circled the pitch, posed with the club’s swan mascot and addressed the players after the game, which ended 1-1 thanks to a stoppage-time equaliser for the hosts.

Head coach Vitor Matos called the partnership positive. Chief executive Tom Gorridge said the star buys into the club and the city, adding that Swansea’s commercial pull has been transformed and that they are now operating beyond even the Premier League years in terms of brand interest.

Preston boss Paul Heckingbottom took a wry view, joking that a whiff of cannabis in the tunnel was the giveaway that something was different.

Beyond Snoop Dogg, Swansea’s minority investors also include American businesswoman Martha Stewart and former Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric, now at AC Milan, who has never played for the Swans. In the Championship, the celebrity presence tends to be in ownership rather than on the pitch, with actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny behind fellow Welsh club Wrexham since 2021 and former quarterback Tom Brady invested in Birmingham City. Both clubs have been the subject of docuseries, released by Disney and Amazon respectively.

Source: Le Progres