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Arsenal duo Vivianne Miedema and Lisa Evans pledge to donate 1 per cent of salary to charity

The likes of Jürgen Klopp and Juan Mata have joined the same movement

Dan Austin
Thursday 04 November 2021 10:52 GMT
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Miedema and Evans have joined the Common Goal movement
Miedema and Evans have joined the Common Goal movement (Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Arsenal duo Vivianne Miedema and Lisa Evans have joined the Common Goal movement, a charitable fund where football stars agree to donate on per cent of their annual salary to good causes.

Miedema is the top goalscorer in the history of the Women’s Super League as well as the record-holder for the Dutch national team, while Evans joined West Ham on loan from the Gunners earlier this year having joined her parent club four years ago. The duo are are partners who met at Arsenal and now live together in London.

The pair’s club team-mate Lotte Wubben-Moy previously joined Common Goal in May, and 45 per cent of the organisation’s member players are women, including the likes of United States captain Megan Rapinoe and Chelsea’s Denmark forward Pernille Harder.

Common Goal was founded when Manchester United’s Juan Mata co-founded the organisation in 2017 and became its first paying member, while the Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp, Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini, and Bayern Munich winger Serge Gnabry have joined in subsequent years. The charity says it aims “to take on the world's toughest opponents from HIV/AIDS to gender inequality to youth unemployment.”

Miedema spoke of her desire to help improve the lives of others and called for others to join the cause, saying in a statement: “I’m lucky to be living my dream and I feel the responsibility to help others live theirs too. I’m excited to join Common Goal and to be able to really scale the impact I can have off the field. I urge other colleagues, male and female, from club and country, to join Common Goal. The time for action is now and it’s by working as team that we can make real change.”

Evans, who won a Bundesliga title in a two-year stint with Bayern Munich, added: “Both Viv and I want to be the best players we can be, but we also want to be happy and constructive human beings off the pitch. Common Goal is the perfect platform to create change through football in a collective, sustainable way.”

A total of 159 footballers are currently signed up to support Common Goal.

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