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Diane Scavuzzo
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NFL Football Star Marshawn Lynch Invests in Roots of Oakland
Oakland Roots is one of the original teams that kicked off NISA and now, the club has made the jump to the USL Championship—moving from the third tier of American professional soccer to the second tier. Now, the community centered pro club is proud to announce NFL superstar, entrepreneur, philanthropist and proud Oakland native Marshawn Lynch will be joining the ownership group. #OaklandFirstAlways #BoutThatAction
USL SOCCER News: In recent days, Oakland Roots Sports Club of the United Soccer League (USL) announced that Marshawn Lynch—NFL superstar, entrepreneur, philanthropist and proud Oakland native—joined the club’s ownership group.
It is great to see professional football players invest their time, attention and money into soccer.
The Oakland Tech graduate and Super Bowl champion was selected by the Buffalo Bills in the 2007 NFL Draft after playing college football at the University of California, Berkeley. Now Lynch joins Oakland Roots as an owner and partner on a new initiative to bring financial literacy and freedom to the local community.
“Growing up in the Town, we always could count on the pro teams in this area,” said Lynch. “With most of those ones that I grew up with gone, I knew the minute I heard about the opportunity to join Oakland Roots, it wasn’t just something I wanted to do.”
In 2019, Oakland Roots was launched with focus on utilizing its foundation to propel social equity through promotion. For instance, the club puts resources into activities like the club’s Justice Fund to help causes at the crossing point of race and sexual orientation equity. In 2021, Roots SC helped dispatch the Anti-Racist Project as a feature of it’s enrollment of the worldwide Common Goal development.
Lynch has profound roots in Oakland that epitomize what the Town is all about. He also has an entrepreneurial history that includes BeastMode Apparel, BeastMode Marketing and Rob Ben’s Restaurant.
“From the start, we have tried to build an ownership group that was excited about more than just pro sports, but also about Oakland and our Purpose” said Roots Co-founder and CMO Edreece Arghandiwal.
“Who Marshawn is and what he represents means so much to the community and the greater Bay Area,” said Arghandiwal. “He has always been about the action and he is exactly the type of person who can help us realize our vision for giving back to the city we all love.”
Roots SC and Lynch have also declared an association with Oakland-born Goalsetter—a saving, smart spending and financial literacy app for K-12 that shows monetary training through fun, game-based quizzes. Goalsetter is focused on shutting the wealth gap by giving children in Oakland and across the nation savings accounts with socially significant financial education to show them a way of towards financial freedom. More data about this organization will be reported in the coming weeks.
“Giving kids in my home town a pro soccer club and players to look up to and a team that this community and city can get hella excited about was something I had to get down with,” said Lynch. “And then, you layer in the commitment they are making to this city through all our grassroots efforts, the partnership with Goalsetter, just reassured and told me that the organization isn’t just talking about creating change, but really being about that action and making shit happen.”
Media Credit: Oakland Roots SC
The post NFL STAR MARSHAWN LYNCH JOINS OAKLAND ROOTS SC OWNERSHIP appeared first on SoccerToday.
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