It’s time our stars meet Common Goal to give back

A culture of taking what they can from the game is endemic

EVERYONE loves a tale of excess in football, something to rage about in a sport that spits out working-class multi-millionaires as fast as it makes them. There’s also the envy.

Here’s one to get the dander up – an unknown story of events at Norwich when they won promotion to the Premier League a few years ago.

Gary Hooper, Gary O’Neil and Lewis Grabban were all travel companions in a car-sharing scheme during their season in the Championship.

That all changed when they turned up for the first day of pre-season – each of them roared into the training ground in their own new Ferraris.

Apparently it was a deal they had struck with one another during a season in the second tier where they were growing tired of each other’s company.

There are plenty of other outrageous examples of what happens when players have money to burn.

But the true measure of a man – or woman for that matter – is how they treat someone who can do absolutely nothing for them.

So step forward Juan Mata, a giant who stands only 5ft 7in tall.

Football’s an unlikely vehicle for restoring faith in human nature but the Manchester United midfielder has broken the mould of a game in which greed is god.

As a co-founder of Common Goal, a charity that urges sports stars to donate one per cent of their earnings to address social issues around the world, the Spaniard is shining a light on how players can go above and beyond the call of social duty.

There hasn’t been a stampede of signatures to get on board – fewer than 40 have put their names to the scheme – but it’s not about naming and shaming.

Hoffenheim’s Julian Nagelsmann became the first coach to join in October, adding to a list that includes male and female internationals such as Mats Hummels, Giorgio Chiellini, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, and Vero Boquete.

The personal choice of donating to charity is a prickly one when it comes to footballers and, in fairness, many work of them for good causes in their own particular way.

Dig deeper and you find players who give time and financial support to charities, more often than not under the radar. Some have foundations of their own so fair play to those where these examples are applicable.

This campaign is different. Mata began his recruitment drive last August and it has been a slow burner. After two months not one Premier League star had followed his lead and currently only four have signed up. The average weekly wage for a player in the top division down south is just over £50,000. At Old Trafford that figure has soared to a staggering £110,000.

If one per cent of the average Premier League player’s weekly wage was donated to Common Goal it would only be £470 taken from their pay packet – yet very few are prepared to agree to the scheme.

Mata’s ultimate goal is to make this one per cent donation compulsory but the signs aren’t promising.

Selfishness and a culture of taking what they can from the game is endemic with players who on the whole don’t recognise their moral requirement to show a social conscience.

Sadly for a majority it just doesn’t Mata.