Footballers receive plenty of negative press because, unfortunately, bad news tends to sell more newspapers than good news does.However, there are countless footballers who regularly do great things that we don’t hear about.Let us tell you an uplifting story involving Paul Pogba you might not be aware of from Manchester United’s end-of-season awards ceremony on Thursday night.Now, there’s a chance you’ve already seen the heart-warming video of young United fan Samuel meeting his heroes at Carrington earlier this season.Samuel has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair but he doesn’t allow that to stop him playing as his school’s goalkeeper.
Video: Samuel meets the United players
The 11-year-old was over the moon when David de Gea gave him a pair of his gloves, while the moment he met Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic together was just beautiful.
Samuel’s message was inspirational: “United show good emotions that they can keep going no matter what. So that’s what I say to myself: ‘Never, never, never give up.’ I’m in a wheelchair and I never give up. Just try. Try your hardest.”
You can watch the footage here…
Even Balotelli loved it
Even former City star Mario Balotelli loved it.
The Italian striker wrote on Instagram at the time: ”You all know I'm not a United fan, but a city fan for life. But, this video goes more far than just football and is amazing. We have power and we need to use it for these reasons."
Pogba's incredible gesture revealed
Back to the awards ceremony and an auction took place to give Samuel the opportunity to lead the United players onto the pitch next season as a mascot.
And it was Pogba, per the Mirror, who stumped up the most cash, raising thousands of pounds for charity in the process.
Presenter Andy Goldstein revealed on Twitter: "Paul Pogba put up a huge amount of money for Samuel to be mascot next season."
Pogba paid around £24,000
The Manchester Evening News have revealed that the sum Pogba offered was said to have been around £24,000.
Cynics might argue it takes Pogba around half-a-day to earn that amount of money - but the fact is, he didn’t have to do it.
It was a fantastic gesture and one that will mean the world to Samuel.