Can you imagine soccer without music?

It is rare to see Ed Sheeran hiding in plain sight as one among many at a stadium. But he won’t be hiding for long: The superstar has announced that he will be sponsoring jerseys for English footcall club Ipswich Town in the coming season — presumably to advertise a new album and a planned tour. Ipswich has been Sheeran's favorite club since childhood, and currently plays in the third division.

This kind of musical sponsorship is not a new idea: When German football club Fortuna Düsseldorf was threatened with relegation to the fourth league in 2001, the famous German punk rock band "Die Toten Hosen" jumped to the rescue, donating almost half a million euros. In exchange, the logo of the Düsseldorf punk rock band was embroidered onto the jerseys of the then-struggling club.

Why sponsor jerseys when you can buy a whole football club? In the 1980s, Elton John purchased Watford FC. The club, which he had watched play with his father for many years in his childhood, was a grounding force for him. Between relationship dramas and drug excesses, Elton John sought a sense of normality there. In 2019, Elton wrote in his memoir: "Watford saved my life."

Perhaps Elton John stole his idea from his British contemporaries in the band Pink Floyd: Roger Waters and David Gilmour even sang about purchasing a soccer club in their world-famous song "Money" ("Think I'll buy me a football team"). But in the end, they concentrated on their music careers while only playing football as a hobby. Their favorite club, of course, was FC Arsenal.

Rod Stewart was also once asked whether he might want to buy a football club. Stewart quipped that he wouldn’t because his friend Elton John had already done that and then lost all his hair. Stewart, who is recognized the world over for his lock of hair, is a die-hard fan of Celtic Glasgow, and even dedicated his song "You're in My Heart” to the club.

It's no secret that Bob Marley liked to take it easy — except for when it came to soccer: His companion Desmond Smith once said that Marley played the game like "a tiger that had been let out of its cage." Whenever the reggae star wasn't busy making music, he would play football. But that passion may even have led to his untimely death: Some claim that a soccer injury eventually killed the singer.

There are two things that seem to be constants in the life of former "Oasis" singer Liam Gallagher: one is the dispute with his brother Noel, the other his eternal love for Manchester City. In 2020, his devotion went too far: Gallagher was unhappy with the club's jersey design — so he tweeted he wished those responsible for it were sent to the COVID hotspot of Wuhan. He later deleted that tweet.

Shakira first discovered her enthusiasm for soccer while performing at the World Cups in Germany (2006), South Africa (2010) and Brazil (2014). Before that, the Colombian singer had little to do with the sport. Not only did she fall in love with the game, but also with one of its icons: in South Africa, she met the soccer star Piqué. The couple have been together for a decade and have two sons.

Things got a bit absurd at Fulham FC when in 2011, the club's then-owner, Egyptian-born businessman Mohamed al-Fayed, had a statue of Michael Jackson installed — right in front of the stadium. Al-Fayed's succesor had the statue of the King of Pop taken down again. No one had really liked the effigy anyway, with many criticizing it as looking tacky.