MY NEW HERO
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Paris St. Germain striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has outlined a highly unusual charitable gesture he made in support of the World Food Programme on Saturday. Ibrahimovic was booked after only two minutes for removing his shirt as he celebrated scoring the opening goal in his side’s 2-2 draw with Caen…. But the sanction was a small price to pay as the heavily-tattooed Sweden international displayed several new designs, a mysterious collection of signatures which he shed light on at a press conference on Sunday…. “I had 15 temporary tattoos on my body. They were the names of real people who suffer from starvation in the world…. “Even if the tattoos are gone today, these people are still there. There are 805 million starving people in the world. I want you to see them, through me, to help the World Food Programme.”
Too often, we hear about athletes who are little more than spoiled, pampered, self-absorbed imbeciles who believe the world rightly revolves around them and their every whim. While there are certainly no lack of those sorts of immature, loathsome individuals playing kids’ games for obscene amounts of money, there are far more who understand how truly fortunate they are. They understand that their role provides them with a high degree of visibility which, like anything else can be used for good or…not so good. Many athletes go out of their way to give back to their community, most without making any effort to attract attention to their efforts- except for the opportunity to raise funds for their particular cause. It’s the few spoiled brats who ruin it for the many athletes who’ve chosen to use their platform to do good in their communities.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a spectacularly talented goal scorer and one of the top soccer players in the world. His talent and exploits give him a level of visibility few players in the world not named Leonel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo enjoy. I suspect that Ibrahimovic’ yellow card felt like a fair trade for raising awareness about a cause that’s clearly close to his heart. That fact that I’m writing about it (and I’m certainly not alone) is indication that WFP’s collaboration with Ibrahimovic to draw attention to world hunger was very successful.
The scheme was the brainchild of WFP director Marina Catena, who accompanied Ibrahimovic at the press conference.
Catena said: “I had this dream that someone would share this message in a simple way, beyond any barrier.
“We thought of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who is often asked for autographs. Why should it not be Zlatan, this time, who wore the autographs on his skin?…
Ibrahimovic added: “It’s the first time I have worked publicly with any charity. If we can reach the world’s leaders, I know that we can solve together the problem of hunger in the world.”
The reality that in a world blessed with so much material wealth there are still 805 million people living with starvation is staggering. Ibrahimovic is but one person, and his efforts will not by themselves solve world hunger, but what he did helped raise awareness, and sometimes awareness is the first step of solving a problem. No one, adult or child, deserves to live without adequate food resources, yet 805 million people do exactly that.
If a yellow card is the price of raising awareness and the profile of world hunger, it seems Ibrahimovic made a good choice. Would that more athletes could use their visibility to such effect.
