This Is How African International Football Players Contribute to the Development of Their Original Countries
One can only admire and appreciate everyone who was able to succeed, innovate, and shine in any field. Especially when success is the result of years of hard work and dedication. Yet, when success and brilliance culminate in humanitarian charitable work, which gives the star a tinge of glory and inspiration.
This report highlights the humanitarian actions of some football players, who put their fame and wealth into serving needy African communities.
Sadio Mane is not just a professional football player in Europe, scoring and making goals and contributing to the crowning of local and European titles, but he is a human athlete highly engaged in humanitarian projects in the Senegalese town of Bambali, the town where he was born and where he learned football in its streets and stadiums.
According to the Africa Facts Zone website, which specializes in transmitting accurate information about all African athletes, especially football players, Mane has recently spent huge amounts of money from his own account to develop Bambali and turn it into a developed city with all the basic necessities.
Humanitarian Projects
According to the Africa Fact Zone, the Senegalese Sadio Mane, built a private hospital in Bambali, worth about 529 million euros, in order to help the population with hospitalization and medical services needed.
This hospital will provide assistance to the town of Bambali and 33 neighboring towns as well, and with this step, Mane has helped the Senegalese people not only the people of the town in which he was born.
On the other hand, Mane built a school in Bambali, which cost about 291 million euros, in order to help students study in good social and cultural conditions away from the problems of poverty and the difficult life experienced by the people of African countries in general, specifically in Senegal.
Mane's actions are not limited to building a school and a hospital, but the Senegalese star has allocated 70 euros per month to each of the families of his town of Bambali (population of approximately 2,000 people), which means that he spends about 140,000 euros per month to help the people of his town overcoming difficult financial conditions.
Mane also contributed to the delivery of the 4G Internet network to his town by contracting with a specialized company to develop the communications network and the Internet, to confirm the player's endeavor to develop the town on the technological level as well and to give the residents an opportunity to enjoy good Internet service.
He was keen to build a gas station in the town as well, which he opened in the summer after the end of the 2021-2022 season, which will also help develop the town and push it towards self-reliance on the energy source without the need for residents to leave the town for daily refueling.
On the cultural level, Mane was the initiator of an initiative to support outstanding students by providing laptops to the best students in addition to an amount of $400, in addition to distributing sportswear for children in the town of Bambali. The Senegalese striker's main goal is to give children and young people an opportunity to learn about football and play sports, especially football.
Academy for Football & Studies
In an interview with the Moroccan magazine TelQuel, former international player Mehdi Benatia explained that he has a lot of projects in Morocco along with the desire to create a high-level academy that combines football and study. He said: “I thought about it throughout my career, as I saw all these kids playing with the ball but very few players from North African countries were able to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League.”
He added that he had the idea of buying a Moroccan club and restructuring it. He mentioned another very important thing which is to create a charitable foundation. He emphasized that it is great to make donations, but it is better “to lay the foundation of an orphanage with your own hands, go to villages in remote areas that are in a difficult situation, and do the aid yourself.” He added, “Although these actions seem simple, they are good deeds that will be remembered forever. Perhaps more than the World Cup or the African Nations Cup, which belongs to the world of football.”
Orphan Life
The orphan life of the French footballer of Mali origins, Frederic Oumar Kanoute, prompted him to open a center for orphans and dedicate his life to charitable projects.
The former player in the ranks of the Spanish club Seville recently received the International Benevolence Award presented by the Turkiye Diyanet Foundation.
The award was presented to the 42-year-old athlete, during the ceremony of the fifth edition of the International Competition for Good, which was held on March 13, 2019, at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, in the presence of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The idea of opening a center for orphan care came in order to help the poor children he saw in the streets and alleys of Mali after he converted to Islam in his twenties.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Frederic Omar Kanoute said that his conversion to Islam constituted a turning point in his life and that his view of life and his relations with others changed after that.
On the motives for his conversion to Islam, Kanoute said that he was greatly influenced by the benevolence factor that exists in the Islamic religion, indicating that aid and solidarity activities with others became a major part of his life after converting to Islam.
He stressed the importance of charitable activities in terms of motivating the individual to think about the purpose of this life, explaining that Islam encourages people to share what they own with others.
Regarding the activities of the orphanage care center that bears his name, the international athlete said that it embraces 90 children between the ages of 5-17 years, and provides them with all services related to education, restaurant, and clothing.
He explained that when he decided to move to the Seville club in 2006, he searched for places of worship in the Spanish city, and for stores that sell halal products, like any other Muslim, as he mentioned.
He continued, "While I was researching this, they told me that there is a mosque that Muslims are about to lose, to demand that the owner of the land on which it was built should vacate it due to the expiration of the land contract, and the only solution to prevent this is to buy the property. God honored me by buying it and we saved the mosque from demolition."
He stated that he is currently financing the construction of the first new mosque to be built in Seville in 700 years.
