In the past week, we’ve had plenty of stories about World Cup players donating their prize money to deserving causes. The Argentina national team gave over $100,000 to the pediatric cancer center of a hospital in Buenos Aires. Rumors abounded that Mesut Özil would be donating his winnings to the people of Gaza, but the truth was that he gave over $400,000 to fund surgeries for 23 Brazilian children.
Turns out, though, that there are internationals that wish to see some of their prize money go to the children of Gaza. Algeria, who made it to the knockout stages only to lose 2-1 to Germany in added extra time, are donating 10 million dinars, or $100,000, to show their full solidarity to the children of Gaza.
The Algeria Football Federation (FAF) did not specify a specific charity in Gaza to which the money would be donated, but did include the gift in the summary of their meeting of July 19.
$100,000 may seem like a lot of money to many of us, but when considering the astronomical sums many players are making these days -- stars make that amount per week -- it may be tempting to shrug aside these sorts of donations. But it’s worth remembering that the Fennec Foxes aren’t composed of a bunch of superstars. They’re mostly young kids playing in Spain, France, Portugal and Italy.
We hear a lot of stories about athletes spending wildly, about football federations not paying their players, about the World Cup spending overlooking the populations of the host countries. Irregardless of your particular politics, it’s nice to read the occasional story on soccer players who are trying to make children’s lives better.