Manchester United midfielder provided his verbal support to striker-turned political activist Marcus Rashford for his efforts.
Manchester United star Juan Mata mentioned that his teammate Marcus Rashford should do something other than football. Evidently, the striker received criticism regarding his battle to aid children.
Previously in June, Rashform convinced the UK government to extend policies to provide free food to poor children.
Subsequently, the vote to extend free school meals over the holidays until Easter 2021 is lost. And, Rashford snapped back at the government earlier this week.
Support from a teammate.
Nevertheless, Mata admired Rashford’s efforts following his achievement of MBE. Consequently, the Spanish midfielder supports the England international for his work.
“It’s important for every player to realize the platform that we have. The message that we can get across and the number of people that we can help,” Mata told the Pitch to Post Preview podcast.
“I’m very proud of what Marcus has been doing. On the pitch, of course, we know how good he is and he is still performing very well. But off the pitch also, the work he’s been doing over the last months has been great.
“He has improved the quality of life for so many kids in this country. Which I’m sure everyone is proud of. His family should be proud of him, me, as a team-mate, and the club is very proud of him.
“And I think it’s important also to get the message that of course we are football players and our main focus is our professional life. Which is training and playing football and being ready to perform but that doesn’t take away from having time to do these kinds of things. Which doesn’t take any focus away from our professional life.
“I’ve seen some people saying, Marcus should stick to playing football and things like that. Which I don’t really agree with because he can do both, as he’s showing. And I’m very proud of what he’s done and he’s getting the reward he deserves.”
Furthermore, Mata also praised his former teammate Frank Lampard ahead of their clash on the weekend in the Premier League.
“You could feel from the first day that I arrived at Chelsea’s dressing room that he was a very intelligent man,” Mata said.
“He knew a lot about football and he understood the game really well as a player. You could imagine that he would be a very good manager like he’s showing now.”