Juan Mata said that Jose Mourinho and other Manchester United players are donating !% of their salary to charity. (Source: Reuters)
Juan Mata on Wednesday said that Jose Mourinho and some Mancheter United players will join him in donating 1% of their salaries to charity for ‘Common Goal’ which is a scheme in conjunction with streetfootballworld.
Mata had pledged to donate his salary last month during his trip to Mumbai where he visited the slums and interacted with the locals and played street football. He had promised to convince other players to sign up for the scheme too. A month later, the 29-year old said, “They will. I’m almost ready to say who. We have more players coming but it is step by step.”
“The final idea would be for the whole professional industry commit, not just the footballers,” he said. “Sometimes football can have a bad reputation but there are great people in football who are trying to help. I believe there are great values in football and, if this helps on that, then great.”
He added: “We are human beings and we react in different ways but everyone understands what we are trying to do. Everyone understands we are in a lucky position, we are privileged and many others are not so lucky. We are going to try and reach every footballer out there. I think it will get bigger in the next few weeks and months.”
Calling Rashford special, Mata said, “From the first moment we saw him in training, we knew he was someone special. He is making it real scoring for us and England. He can be even bigger. He is a real threat. He has great qualities and the mentally to become a big big player.”
“The belief is always there. When you play for such a club, you start every competition believing that you can win it. Later, some things happen and some bad games didn’t allow us to win it last year but we need to find that consistency that can make us fight in the last months and be one of those teams that will be up there.”
