Juan Mata to donate 1% of his £7m salary to charity - calling on other footballers to do the same

'I am leading this effort, but I don’t want to be alone'

Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata has committed to donating one per cent of his salary to charity - and he wants other footballers to follow his lead.

The Spaniard, who is reported to earn £140,000-a-week at Old Trafford, will be giving the money to Common Goal - a collective fund of 120 charities in 80 countries around the world.

"It’s a small gesture that if shared can change the world," Mata wrote in a blog for the Player's Tribune.

"I’m asking my fellow professionals to join me in forming a Common Goal Starting XI. Together we can create a movement based on shared values that can become integral to the whole football industry - forever.

"I am leading this effort, but I don’t want to be alone."

Mata explained that his inspiration came from the Champions League final in 2012 where his former team, Chelsea, became champions of Europe.

"As we were celebrating, I looked around at my teammates, and I saw the beauty of football," he wrote.

"We came from all over the world, from different circumstances, and spoke many different languages. Some had grown up during wartime. Some had grown up in poverty.

"But there we were, all standing together in Germany as champions of Europe."

Describing his fortune at having been able to forge a career in football, Mata explained that he now wanted to give something back.

"We have so many opportunities simply because we play a children’s game," he went on, in his appeal to fellow professionals.

"We are so lucky to live a dream. Let’s come together and help kids everywhere experience that same light and joy.

"By doing so we can show the wider football industry that Common Goal needs to happen and that it will happen, because it’s right."