Rewarding day for super Rash
MARCUS IS PRIZE GUY JUST HOURS AFTER WIN
CHILD poverty crusader Marcus Rashford capped a perfect day by hitting Leeds for six – and then landing a special Sports Personality of the Year award.
England striker Rashford, who grew up on the breadline in Wythenshawe, embarrassed the Government into two U- turns to ensure kids did not go hungry during the pandemic.
And after helping Manchester United move up to third in the Premier League with a demolition of trans- Pennine rivals Leeds, Rashford admitted he never expected his feed- thekids campaign to take off.
He said: “As a kid growing up, I felt like I started a 100- metre race 15 metres behind everybody else.
“It was more difficult for me to do basic things, like getting to training and eating the right things, and it was a nightmare situation. But once I got to
Make sure you make a difference to next generation
where I wanted to be, I had this thing eating away inside me saying, ‘ Make sure you make a difference for the next generation’ – because, as a nation, we should always protect the next generation.
“Everything I get from doing what I do will always sit in my mum’s house, in front of her where she can see it.
“In difficult circumstances, she brought me up to be a person with morals and it’s important to me that she can see my awards every day.”
Rashford was surprised when his crusade caught a wave – and caught the Tory Government off- guard. He said: “I didn’t expect it – to be honest, it was something I tried a few years ago in Manchester, helping a lot of kids around the city, but I wasn’t satisfied with the reach it was having. A few years later, when I was injured, I was speaking to my brothers and my mum and we decided to have another go at it.”
First Rashford forced the Government into a U- turn to keep providing £ 15 food vouchers to England’s poorest families over the summer after more than a million people signed a petition backing the United striker’s campaign. Then, after digging his heels at first and refusing to extend free school meals to children from families in poverty line during holidays, Prime Minister Boris Johnson again caved in to immense public pressure.
Rashford’s cause was based on his own childhood, revealing that his mother sometimes “struggled to put bread on the table”. His subsequent award of the MBE was not only recognition for a sportsman’s social awareness but a slap in the face for a Government out of tune with the public mood.
Rashford was not considered eligible for the main SPOTY award because the judging panel insist the main criterion should be sporting achievement – although he has scored 19 goals for club and country in 2020. But the SPOTY Panel Special Award was recognition for his impact beyond the pitch.