One of the most dynamic French footballers playing today is taking his victory money and paying it forward.
Kylian Mbappé, a 19-year-old powerhouse who scored four goals this year as France smashed the World Cup, has announced that he will donate all of his earnings from the tournament to Premiers de Cordée, an organization that provides free sports instruction to hospitalized kids and children with disabilities, and campaigns on disability awareness with schools and businesses, reports USA Today.
Take Action: Be the Generation to End Extreme Poverty
“Kylian, he's a great person,” Sebastien Ruffin, general manager of Premiers de Cordée, told Le Parisien, a French news outlet. “When his schedule allows it, he intervenes for us with pleasure. He has a very good [relationship] with children, he always finds the right [words] to encourage them. I sometimes even feel that [he] takes more pleasure to play with the kids than the kids themselves.”
Mbappé earned a £265,000 bonus (or roughly $350,000) after defeating Croatia 4-2 in the final Sunday, according to Sports Illustrated.
Read More: The England Squad Have Donated Their Match Earnings to Charity for Over a Decade
And he didn’t have to think long on where to contribute the funds — Mbappé’s been supporting Premiers de Cordée since 2017, donating all his match fees to the charity, as much as £17,000 per game, according to French newspaper L’Equipe.
The athlete, who was born in Paris, is the son of immigrants. His father, Wilfried Mbappé, is from Cameroon and his mother, Fayza Lamari, is originally from Algeria.
Crowned by ESPN as soccer’s “future king,” Mbappé has been followed closely for his actions on the field as well as his charitable gestures off of it during the World Cup.
Read More: England's World Cup Team Would Be Unrecognisable Without Immigration
The flurry of media coverage surrounding his work with nonprofits caused other athletes’ good deeds to get noticed as well.
The England national team has donated 100% of their match fees to the England Footballers Foundation (EFF) since 2007, according to a statement sent to Global Citizen by the EFF. As a result, the players have raised over £5 million for the charity, which has supported a diverse range of organisations like UNICEF, Help for Heroes, and many more.