Soccer Stars Take A Kick Against Poverty

Close to 30,000 soccer fans attended Monday’s fifth edition of the ‘Match Against Poverty’ hosted by soccer stars Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo.

“We don’t forget where we have come from and we are uniting in a good cause,” said former France international Zidane, who grew up in a poor neighborhood of Marseille.

The Match Against Poverty was organized by Zidane and Ronaldo as part of their role as Goodwill Ambassadors for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The objective of the match is to raise public awareness of the fight against poverty and to convince governments of the value of working towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which seek to cut world poverty in half by 2015.

“The aim of such a match is to make people aware of the problem of poverty in the world,” said AC Milan star Ronaldo, who is still battling an injury and was substituted in the first half by seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher.

The game, which ended in a 2-2 draw, was played between ‘Friends of Zidane’ and the ‘Friends of Ronaldo’ in the central Moroccan city of Fez. Local United Nations Development Programme representative Mourad Wahda said Morocco was chosen for the progress it had made in human development. Proceeds will – as in previous years – benefit anti-poverty projects in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America