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Manchester City’s Vincent Kompany teams up with Andy Burnham to help homeless

The Premier League footballer will give all the profits from his testimonial match to the Greater Manchester Mayor’s new ‘Tackle4MCR’ campaign

Vincent Kompany Mike Serigrapher Flickr

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany has made Manchester is home since joining the club – and now he has pledged to give money back to those living in the city who do not have a home.

The Premier League star has pledged to give all the profits from his testimonial match – a celebratory game played when a player reaches the milestone of ten years at a single club – to the homeless as part of Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s new ‘Tackle4MCR’ campaign.

Testimonials were a huge part of a footballer’s career in the days before the Premier League era of ever-increasing wage. The gate receipts from the showpiece match were often given to the player to tide them through retirement back when a footballer was more likely to become a pub landlord than a global superstar after hanging up their boots.

Now it is more common to see the proceeds donated to good causes, but that does little to diminish Kompany’s gesture which aims to support Burnham’s bid to end rough sleeping in Manchester by 2020.

“I’ve received much from Manchester,” said the Belgian. “Over the past decade I’ve been lucky to have witnessed and played a part in Manchester City’s rise as a club and a brand. This has also run parallel alongside the rise of a whole region.

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“However, with this spectacular rise, comes a very visible downside: more and more people are left out of and have no access to the benefits of the rapid development, often leaving them no choice but to end up on the streets.”

The match will be held at city’s The Etihad Stadium at the end of the current season in August 2019.

All profits will be donated to Burnham’s homelessness fund – the mayor also gives 15 per cent of his charity to the same cause.

“In his famous poem, Tony Walsh told us that ‘some are born here, some drawn here, but all call it home’,” he said. “Those words are personified by Vincent Kompany and his desire, through Tackle4MCR, to give back to this city that he now calls home.”

Image: Mike Serigrapher/Flickr

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