In this report, JOHNNY EDWARD takes a look at the array of African stars who have given back to their communities after attaining global popularity
Nothing announces your arrival as a sports legend like attaching your name to a good cause.
Sportsmen are known for the heavy amounts of money they earn, which automatically imposes on them celebrity status and the financial means to make a positive impact.
While several sports stars live the big life driving expensive cars, living in expensive mansions and wearing jewelry and designer apparel valued at millions of dollars, some never forgot their humble beginnings, giving back to their communities and even beyond.
Top African footballers like Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Nwankwo Kanu and Samuel Eto’o have been involved in widely publicised humanitarian projects in Africa.
Saido Mane, Emmanuel Adebayor, Lucas Radebe and Mohamed Aboutrika have established their own foundations and trust funds to assist causes ranging from social inclusion to literacy.
These high-earning and high-profile athletes, who seem to have it all — jet-set lifestyles, admiration and huge material wealth, however, choose to get involved with selfless initiatives by giving back to their communities, by donating to charities, funding disaster-relief efforts, sponsoring scholarships and bolstering their alma maters.
The video and pictures of the badly damaged screen of Sadio Mane’s iphone went viral on social media some years ago, while at English giants Liverpool. Social media users were baffled at the mobile phone the super rich superstar had with him, but the 2021 AFCON winner cared less.
What was more important to the Bayern Munich star was the life-saving projects he had embarked on back in his native Senegal.
The kind-hearted Mane has transformed his home village of Bambali, having spent over £700,000 on new projects, including a hospital, school and fuel station.
Last summer, the 30-year-old visited the £455,000 hospital he financed, which serves 34 villages in the surrounding area.
The £250,000 public secondary school, which he built in the village, is quickly transforming Bambali into a town, which now has a population of over 2,000 people.
However, Mane’s generosity has extended far beyond the funding of new buildings.
The 30-year-old winger also provides each family in the village with a monthly €70 support package and offered €400 to the best students at Bambali High School.
Laptops have also been provided for the school, free sportswear has been handed out to the children in the village and 4G internet has been installed. He has already pledged funds to build a post office, which would help further grow the village.
A video of Mane cleaning the toilets in a mosque in Liverpool also went viral, highlighting his selfless attitude.
Now Senegal’s all-time record goals scorer, Mane is a national icon in more ways than one back in his home country.
Didier Drogba, who had a glittering career featuring for Olympique Marseille, Chelsea and Galatasary, also plays a huge role back in Ivory Coast.
In 2006, the retired striker helped halt a three-year Civil War in his country.
A war which began in 2002 divided the Ivoirians, with former President Laurent Gbagbo’s government controlling the south and a rebel faction known as The New Forces of Ivory Coast, led by Guillaume Soro, controlling the north.
But after helping the Elephants secure their maiden qualification to the 2006 World Cup in Germany with a 3-1 victory away in Sudan, Drogba’s plea to both warring factions from the dressing room at the Al-Merrikh Stadium, saw both sides move closer to the negotiating table, before a ceasefire was finally signed.
He also helped launch a drive to plant a million trees to halt deforestation in his homeland in 2019. The ‘One Day, One Million Trees’ campaign was a move to start the recovery of forests considered badly degraded, according to him.
In Cameroon, the legendary Samuel Eto’o, who is the current President of the Cameroonian Football Federation, holds a legacy beyond football.
Eto’o, regarded as one of Africa’s greatest footballers ever, is not only known for his goals scoring prowess, titles and individual honours, but also for his humanitarian works in his hometown Douala.
The former Barcelona and Inter Milan striker in 2006 set up The Samuel Eto’o Foundation to fight for the interest of children and young people as well as provide emergency aid and encourage education, basic health and social inclusion.
In 2017, he also donated a ward with 48 beds dedicated to emergencies and resuscitation of children to the Laquintinie Hospital in Douala.
The ward is made up of hospital beds, a crash room, a phototherapy unit, a dietetic service, a meeting room, doctors’ offices and several consultation blocks.
For Eto’o, it is his modest contribution to the development of his country to ensure the quality of healthcare in pediatrics is top-notch.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the four-time African Player of The Year also supplied 100,000 people in Cameroon with facemasks, hand sanitisers, soaps and food through his foundation.
Vital supplies were also sent to over 50,000 households across four cities – Douala, Buea, capital city Yaoundé and Bafoussam.
In Ghana, Michael Essien also set up a foundation to raise funds for the underprivileged of his hometown Awutu Breku, a small town in Accra, where they lack basic amenities like healthcare equipment, libraries, public toilets and clean drinking water.
The ex-Chelsea man was inspired by the death of his brother, who died while in search of water to live.
He has also been involved in several charity works, including the ‘Reading Goals’ to inculcate reading habits in students from his village.
Capped 59 games by Ghana, Essien believes that was the only weapon that could propel youths from Awutu Breku to greater heights. Currently working as an assistant coach with Danish club, FC Nordsjalland, the former Real Madrid and AC Milan midfielder donates one per cent of his salary to the Common Goal cause – a charitable movement championed by Spanish forward Juan Mata.
Nigeria’s star footballers are also not left out of these charitable causes back home and have also contributed immensely to the needs of their roots.
One of them is Nigeria’s most-capped footballer and current Super Eagles captain Ahmed Musa.
Musa, who started his career with Kano Pillars, offered scholarships worth N1.6bn to 100 students of Skyline University, the first private university in north western Nigeria, in 2020.
“I am a great believer in the importance of education, hence my excitement in joining this great team to promote this vision of becoming anything you want to be in life as long as you can dream it.
“So, I am pleased to let you know that I would be sponsoring 100 students at this university,” Musa, who currently features for Turkish side Sivasspor, stated.
He often donates food, money and other items to the people of the region, especially during the Ramadan fasting and the festive season.
In 2017, he opened a N500m sports complex in Kano, saying he wanted the residents to have a world-class recreational space to engage in exercise and sporting activities.
Al Hilal striker, Odion Ighalo, is another Nigerian who has followed in the footsteps of his fellow footballers in giving back to their communities.
In 2017, the former Watford man built the Ighalo Orphanage Home in Lagos at a cost of about $1.4m.
The move was fueled by his desire to make a difference in the lives of those who had rough starts in life, an experience he shares with them. The orphanage houses between 30 and 40 children, either abandoned or removed from their homes by the state, and takes care of them until they turn 18, teaching academics and sports.
“Life was tough growing up in Ajegunle and I vowed that if I eventually had a breakthrough, I’ll give back to the society that made me,” Ighalo stated on the foundation’s website.
“Life’s challenges were hard enough even with both parents at my side. It goes without saying that orphans have it even worse and it gladdens my heart that life has offered me this rare privilege to be guiding light in their life.
“I dream of affecting lives and this is one step in the right direction. I hope lives will be positively changes, the aims and goals of the orphanage fully met and the children who are the leaders of tomorrow preserved.”
Also, Southampton striker, Paul Onuachu, who was raised in Ojo Alaba, Lagos came to the aid of the people of Umuota Agbaghara Nsu village in Ehime Mbano Local Government Area of his home state Imo by providing a 45KVA transformer.
The village had been without electricity for over a decade.
“It was always weird going home for the Yuletide and seeing that the village had no electricity, the thought of helping my village get a transformer came up and God did the rest. At least, my kinsmen don’t need to rely on generators or walk as far as the next village to charge a phone,” Onuachu told The PUNCH.
In the same vein, Nantes winger, Moses Simon, also came to the aid of Obagaji Agatu community, in Benue State, donating boreholes in September 2020.
The area had suffered basic amenities in the past, before the Eagles winger extended his hand of generosity to the community by drilling three boreholes.
“I was more concerned about the source of portable drinking water and other social amenities in the community, something we’ve lacked in Benue for some time now.
“I hope this helps in a way because I want the development of my community,” Simon said.
Simon, who was born and raised in Kaduna, also donated clothes, food and drugs to his community, as well as paying for their free medical services.
He also gave N500,000 to Internally Displaced Persons in Southern Kaduna.
Former Spain U-20 striker Sunday Stephen has set up the Mirian & Stephen Charitable Trust to empower kids and help them become better.
“Our mission is to empower families with kids and empower them with basic skills so we can provide them with a better life.” Mirian, Sunny’s wife, said.
On his part, Sunday told The PUNCH, “We are presently trying to help homeless kids to get them shelter, and a family that can give them love, send them to school, help them with the basic things.
“As I’m talking to you right now, there are kids that are suffering.
“My wife and I, we’ve really spent a lot of time with the kids. We really think we can make something out of nothing, bring a smile to their faces.”
The women are not left out either as Super Falcons and Barcelona striker Asisat Oshoala also founded the Asisat Oshoala Academy in Lagos mainly to provide access to education and sports for young girls in her community.
Oshoala’s foundation is also responsible for 30 girls between the ages of 12 to 18 with access to 90 minutes of football training three times a week.
This move has also complemented the life skills education she also introduced to cover a range of skill empowerment.
“Education is not only about academics, sports also have a role to play in moulding the lives of the young ones. We should do more to help build our young people through sports.
“I have always strived to give back to the girl child in my community and I believe this football academy will provide opportunities for more girls to excel through the combination of sport and education. I want to thank our partners for helping bring this platform to life. Together we can go further and achieve a lot more,” Oshoala said.
In 2016, table tennis star, Offiong Edem, set up a non-profit sports organisation, The Offiong Edem Foundation, which is saddled with the responsibility of enhancing integral development and quality life of young people through table tennis, with a special interest in grassroots athletes in Calabar.
Recently, she donated some sports equipment and organised table tennis events for young ping-pong players to enhance their skills. Kids who took part at the event were fed, clothed and given medical care.
“Tennis is not a sport that kids can just go out there and play,” she told The PUNCH.
“They need good kits and better environments if they are to start competing at an early age. That’s why I’m trying to give back in my own little way through the foundation.
“It has been on for seven years now and we hope that kids coming through will emerge future champions.”
Getting involved in charity works is a choice, but Prof Jen Shang, a philanthropic psychologist at Plymouth University, England, says the reasons for getting involved can be complex, and are not usually driven by cynical concerns such as monetary gains or fame.
“Looking at philanthropy in sport, and other professions, one may start out in one’s career being motivated by external factors such as money or honours. But after a period of time it is unlikely that people are motivated so much by external rewards, and more by internal drives,” Shang told BBC.
“Top sportspeople might say to themselves, ‘I am achieving so much in my regular role, I would like to branch out and see what is out there in the wider world.’
“And when they become involved in philanthropy, they then find the same sense of reward that they experienced when they started their careers.”
Prof Shang added, “The reason people choose to give money to a cause that is not materially benefitting them is because it is meeting some need.
“By ‘need’, in my research I use the definition of psychological wellbeing. One’s philanthropy can make a major difference, not just to others but to one’s self.”
Nwankwo Kanu is arguably as famous for his philanthropic work in Nigeria just as his heroics on the football pitch for both club and country.
Kanu’s foundation came on the back of a personal, death-defying experience. After leading Nigeria to Olympic gold in 1996, the forward was diagnosed with a heart condition that required life-saving surgery in America.
After recovering from the scare, the striker set up The Kanu Heart Foundation to help ailing children with heart diseases undergo surgeries and live a normal life.
That opened the door for Kanu, who went on to play for Arsenal, Inter Milan and Portsmouth, using his face and foundation to raise funds for surgery for others like him, mostly children.
Over 1,000 children have traveled abroad for life-saving surgeries and have had their heart operations fully funded by Kanu’s foundation since its inception in 2000.
Reports claim more than a hundred are currently on the waiting list pending the availability of funds.
Former Eagles and Everton defender Joseph Yobo, who hails from Kono, a village in Rivers State, handed out scholarships to 300 students and organised a football tournament in the volatile South South region.
Yobo, who spent most of his club career at Everton, also runs a football academy for young, talented players in the state.
“I know how difficult it was for me, even though I was a footballer, and I know there were many more like that who did not have the same opportunities, so it was important for me to help them because you never know what those children will come out to be in future,” he told ESPN.
Retired Chelsea midfielder Mikel Obi also launched his own charity foundation to help the homeless in Jos, Plateau State in 2012.
Mikel, who grew up in Jos, was keen to provide assistance to homeless and displaced people in the city after Muslims and Christians from rival ethnic groups were killed in violence in and around Jos.
“The foundation’s aim is to get people back on their feet, and hopefully raise the aspirations of the affected people,” Mikel told BBC Sport.
“I grew up in Jos. It wasn’t easy for me as a kid, and to watch people going through a tougher situation now is just unbearable.
“Some people have been very lucky but some are not, so it will be to get them to do something positive after these setbacks.”
No doubt, the next generation of Nigerian sportsmen and women are watching and chances are they will be following in the footsteps of their predecessors.
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