Supermodel sponsors County Cork teen basketball team

American model and actress Emily Ratajkowski will sponsor two teen basketball teams in a small Irish coastal town in County Cork.

The 30-year-old beauty answered a funding appeal for the under-15 and under-16 boys teams of the Bantry Basketball Club in County Cork ahead of the new season.

Coach Pat Curran told BBC News that Ratajkowski's parents have a home in the town and her father John played for the basketball club “about 20 years ago.”

Curran said the club was having a difficult time finding sponsorship this year due to the closure of so many Irish businesses during the COVID-19 lockdown.

"I was speaking John the other night so I just said to him if Emily would be interested in sponsoring one of the teams," he said.

"He texted her and she was back within five minutes, saying: 'Absolutely I'd love to do it'.

"They're very decent people."

Curran added that Ratajkowski's "great sense of social justice" made her an inspiration for the club's young players.

"That is very inspirational to young people and it sets a really good example of an equal and accepting society and that's what we strive for in our club.

"There's a lot going on in young people's heads, especially with the closure of sport, the closure of schools [due to the coronavirus lockdown].

"She's someone that they can really look up look up to with her advocacies and how she carries herself - she really encapsulates that ethos of inclusivity."

Ratajkowski’s sponsorship, through her clothing brand Inamorata, will help to buy new kits and cover training expenses for the teams over the next two years.