Juan participated in the prestigious Soccerex Global Convention, held in Manchester, to talk about Common Goal, the initiative that seeks to contribute to social development through football. The Asturian collaborates in the project by donating 1% of his salary to a fund managed by streetfootballworld, the NGO of which Mata is global ambassador.
“Football is a massive force. As I have lived around the world with the teams I have played and with the national team, I know that football has a power that no one else has and can be very useful in many ways. When I talk about football I think of joy, passion, team effort and many more values, but above all is a massivesport”, declared Mata in the Convention.
“Football has a power that nobody else has”#MUFC star @juanmata8 wants to leverage his sport’s huge appeal for his @CommonGoalOrg project pic.twitter.com/iPe7dJK1pc
— Soccerex (@Soccerex) 5 de septiembre de 2017
The talk in which Juan participated was moderated by Guillem Balague and also had the presence and opinions of Jürgen Griesbeck, founder and CEO of streetfootballworld. “If you do not believe in what you do and do not do it with passion, it will never work. That was I said to Jürgen. I believe in what you do and I want to take part of it, to be involved. Sometimes I send a message for a minimal detail. I need to do it to be happy with what we do. In my life I try to do everything with passion”, said the World and Europe champion.
“If you don’t believe in what you do in life, it cannot work” ??@juanmata8 explains his close involvement with @CommonGoalOrg pic.twitter.com/7PNRtKN8HG
— Soccerex (@Soccerex) 5 de septiembre de 2017
On the day of Common Goal´s launch, Mata ‘challenged’ other players to join the solidarity initiative. Mats Hummels, Bayern and the German national team, centre-back, has been the first. Many players, coaches and institutions have been interested in the campaign, and some are close to pen their commitment to Common Goal.