Mata and Mats show mega-rich stars bow to behave
LEADING BY EXAMPLE <O8DGC<
A FORTNIGHT after Juan Mata proved that top-flight football is not all about greed, it has taken a German to step up to the plate to reinforce that message.
Yesterday Bayern Munich ace Mats Hummels signed up to join Manchester United’s Spanish midfielder by pledging one per cent of his wages to a charity that supports global football initiatives for disadvantaged children.
World Cup winner Hummels did not know Mata previously, but was inspired by his call to support Common Goal and make football “a tool for change”.
Sadly, although there has been interest shown from other stars in the Premier League, Germany-based Common Goal confirmed yesterday that they’ve not exactly been inundated with players over here begging them to take a small slice of their salary.
As Common Goal’s Andrew Erlanger points out, one per cent is not exactly a huge loss for such high earners.
And because of the highprofile, god-like status of players, they could very much lead by example and make millions of fans think about, and step up, their own charitable contributions.
This column has constantly bemoaned the lack of a single massive charity appeal in football to rival Comic Relief and Children in Need.
Simple ideas mooted here include every player giving up a match fee one weekend a season. But Mata’s proposal topped that.
With most Premier League stars now being paid so much money, losing one per cent of their wages would be a drop in the ocean.
Yet so far not one top-flight star from United or elsewhere in the Premier League has joined Mata.
Does not one English star think it’s a fabulous idea? Is there not one agent who sees it as an excellent way to raise the reputation of their client?
While the Mata announcement made some headlines briefly earlier this month, the biggest ones have been about Neymar’s £200m move to Paris St-Germain, right-back Kyle Walker joining Manchester City for £54m, his former Tottenham team-mate Danny Rose claiming he is “not being paid what he’s worth” and Arsenal striker Alexis Sanchez turning up his nose at £300,000 a week.
They are just four of the numerous money-driven stories that have seen football @dailystar.co.uk continue to lose whatever little
charm it had left and leave a bad taste in the mouth. Yes, as opening weekend showed, the games on the pitch are still exciting.
But off it the mantra from the 1987 film Wall Street that “greed is good” seems to be taking over the game and it’s the punters who pay for a player’s excesses.