Man Utd star Juan Mata to donate one per cent of salary to Common Goal charity

Mata is a regular blogger and used his social media profile to announce he is taking part in the initiative.

"I thought about everything football had given me," he wrote on The Players' Tribune.

"And I thought about what I wanted my legacy to be. I knew how lucky I was to have the opportunities I’d had — and that not everyone has a family like mine.

"And even though I’ve been engaged with charities before, I knew that I wanted to do something more. I want to make sure that other kids get the chances I had.

"So starting today, I am pledging 1% of my salary to Common Goal, a collective fund — run by the award-winning NGO streetfootballworld — that supports football charities around the globe. It’s a small gesture that if shared can change the world.

"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 has won a hoard of trophies during his career, having clinched the World Cup and European Championship with Spain, plus the Premier League, Champions League, League Cup and twice the FA Cup and Europa League.

He earns an estimated £140,000 a week at United.

And the former Chelsea star reflected on his career during the announcement of his commitment to the Common Goal project.

"The focus now is on contributions from players, but the long-term goal is to unlock one per cent of the entire football industry’s revenues for grassroots football charities that strengthen their communities through sport," he added.

"Just last month, I traveled to Mumbai, India, to see one such charity. We went to a slum just outside the main city, and at first it was very hard to comprehend the level of poverty.

"No child should have to live like that. Seeing the conditions, my spirits were a bit down.

"But then we started interacting with the local kids. Their English wasn’t great, and I’m not sure all of them even knew that I was a football player, but we communicated through laughter and the game. If I smiled, they smiled. If I ran, they ran."

"They knew we were there to help, and there was this tangible energy in the air. And, I think, in the same way that I gave my grandfather life — these children were giving me life.

"So now I would like to call upon my fellow footballers to help. We have so many opportunities simply because we play a children’s game. 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."

Last year in an interview with a Spanish radio station Mata described footballers' wages as "obscene".

"Football is very well remunerated at this level," Mata said. "It’s like we live in a bubble. With respect to the rest of society, we earn a ridiculous amount. It’s unfathomable.

"With respect to the world of football, I earn a normal wage. But compared to 99.9% of Spain and the rest of the world, I earn an obscene amount. The barometer we use for measuring our salaries is comparing them to those of our team-mates and what other players are earning elsewhere.

"I live in a bubble. Real life is the one my friends live. They’ve had to look for work, sign on to the dole and emigrate. That’s normal life now. My life as a footballer is not normal.

"It scares me sometimes to think about just how protected I am. The smallest problem and someone will come and fix it for me. That’s one of the aspects in which we don’t live a normal life."

A statement on the Common Goal website reads: "We’re uniting the world of footballers behind a shared commitment to give back. The idea is simple. Players pledge a minimum of one per cent of their wages to a collective fund. And we allocate this fund to football charities that create the greatest impact worldwide."