We all recognize the Ballon d’Or champion as the goal-scoring superstar from Barcelona, who consistently terrifies every defense he faces on a weekly basis.
The article discusses the notable philanthropic work of Leo Messi, who uses a portion of his £310 million fortune to aid those in need. Inspired by his experiences as a sickly child in Argentina, where he required daily injections to combat a growth deficiency, Messi primarily provides aid through his Leo Messi Foundation to children in need. He also travels around the world as a UNICEF ambassador to help underprivileged individuals. In 2007, Messi founded his charity after being moved to tears during a visit to a hospital in Boston, where he met terminally ill children and realized the impact he could have as a public figure. Messi hopes to use his success to help those who need it most and encourages others to join him in giving back.
Lionel Messi established his foundation after encountering a terminally ill child during a hospital visit. This encounter moved him to take action and create a platform to help those in need.
The famous football player Messi from Barcelona shared that it brings him joy to encounter individuals who are unwell but still manage to smile when he interacts with them.
Before becoming a famous football player, Messi had a growth defect that required daily injections. This inspired him to create the Leo Messi Foundation, which aims to help children with illnesses, promote health education, and support ill children and their families. The foundation works with hospitals and clinics in Argentina and Spain to provide specialized equipment and resources for rare diseases. The foundation’s latest project is building a new pediatric oncology center, expected to be one of the largest in Europe, at the Hospital Sant Joan de Deu in Barcelona. The center is estimated to cost around £30m and will open in the second half of 2020. The foundation’s motto, “Choose to Believe,” reflects Messi’s own achievements and his commitment to making sick children happy.
Messi has committed to donating approximately £30m towards the construction of the SJD Pediatric Centre.
A young boy helped Leo Messi lay the first brick in the construction of the SJD Pediatric Centre at Hospital Sant Joan de Deu, which is supported by Messi’s foundation. Since 2014, the Leo Messi Foundation has provided financial assistance to the Special Olympics in Catalonia to promote sports practice, social integration, and improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. Messi attends the event every year and wishes the athletes the best, resulting in the Twitter trend #messiisalwayswithus. This year, Messi’s charity began working with the Josep Carreras Foundation to fund research into childhood leukemia. The study focuses on a type of lymphoblastic leukemia that particularly affects babies under one year of age, and Messi has pledged to support the foundation financially for the next two years.
Messi teamed up with the Josep Carreras Foundation in support of childhood leukemia research this year. This collaboration was aimed at raising awareness about the disease and its impact on children. The well-known footballer lent his voice to the cause, bringing attention to the important work being done by the foundation.
Over the course of four years, the Leo Messi Foundation generously donated £200,000 towards research efforts into rhabdomyosarcoma, a tumor that affects adolescents and adults. This donation allowed the Hospital Sant Joan de Deu Barcelona to achieve promising results in its project. Messi’s foundation will also fund the research for two years at the Josep Carreras Foundation. In addition to his foundation work, Messi has been a UNICEF ambassador since 2010 and has traveled the world helping those in need. He visited Haiti after the devastating earthquake in 2010, played football with young people with disabilities in Bangkok, and provided financial aid to UNICEF for the construction of health centers in Nepal after the earthquake in 2015.
In 2010, Messi was appointed as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador.
Lionel Messi generously contributed approximately £200,000 towards a village in Kenya. The gesture came through his foundation, Fondacio Messi.
The money belonging to Messi was used to purchase a water pump, enabling children and adults to access clean water. Image credit: Fundacion Messi.
In a heartwarming gesture, Barcelona star Lionel Messi has been actively involved in various charitable activities. In one instance, he donated £315,000 to UNICEF for the Spanish equivalent of Children in Need, ‘Un Sol Para Los Chicos’. The Leo Messi Foundation also launched the ‘Back to Learning’ scheme in 2016, which built prefabricated classrooms to help children affected by the war in Syria return to school. The organization also donatedaound £200,000 to build a water pump in Kenya and provide nutritional supplies to fight child malnutrition. However, his most famous act of kindness was when he sent a signed Barcelona jersey and football to six-year-old Afghan child Murtaza Ahmadi, who was born in extreme poverty and had worn a blue plastic bag with Messi’s name and shirt number scrawled on it. This gesture melted hearts around the world, and the organizing committee for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar invited the boy and Messi to Doha, where they met during a friendly match between Barcelona and Al Ahli. Messi will continue to make dreams come true for boys and girls in the years to come through his philanthropic endaors.
Murtaza Ahmadi, a 6-year-old from Afghanistan, proudly displays his one-of-a-kind Messi shirt.
Messi gifted the young boy a signed Barcelona jersey.
In Qatar, 15Ahmadi got the chance to meet his all-time favorite footballer, Messi, when Barcelona played a friendly match