It is a gesture worthy of respect, executed by Mario Mandzukic!
The Croatian international and currently the AC Milan striker delighted absolutely everyone. Mandzukic was out of action in the previous month due to a muscle injury, which prevented him from playing. Actually, he had not played a single game for the Italian powerhouse that month. For that reason, the 34-year-old World Cup silver medalist decided to donate all the earnings for the month of March to charity, that is, to the club’s foundation.
According to Italian media, Mandzukic salary in Milan – one of the teams that approached new European Super League – is 300,000 euros, and ‘Rossoneri’ decided, at the request of a football player, to donate the last one to a foundation “Fondazione Milan” that encourages projects that help vulnerable young people, both in socio-economic and educational terms.
“(It’s) an incredible gesture, which shows Mario Mandzukic’s ethics and professionalism as well as his respect for Milan. This means that the club will have the opportunity to continue to support the Milan Foundation’s projects which help the underprivileged youth, where sport works as an instrument for social inclusion,” the club president Paolo Scaroni said.
Mandzukic thus found his way in the headlines of the news from the world’s most famous media, who published his gesture:
“Mario Mandzukic has foregone his salary for March after not making a single appearance due to injury. He’s asked the club for his wages to be donated instead to the Milan Foundation,” ESPN wrote.
“Mario Mandzukic has asked for his March wages to be donated to the Milan Foundation after he didn’t make any appearances last month due to injury,” Goal posted.
We will add here that many other professional footballers may easily afford to donate a portion of their monthly earnings to charity from time to time. Mandzukic’s salary at Milan is estimated to about 1.8 million euros for the half-season contract. Even though it is a decent sum, there are a few other football stars who earn significantly more: Lionel Messi earns 112 million euros a year in Barcelona, Cristiano Ronaldo 96 million euros in Juventus, and Neymar Jr. 92 million euros in PSG.
Let’s not be cruel: some of the players we mentioned, such as Ronaldo, used to donate a portion of their earnings to a good cause. And why wouldn’t he, given that the earnings of a Portuguese star go beyond those just from a contract with clubs but also comes from various sponsorship deals and brand ambassador arrangements, e.g. from poker rooms (which is a game that is very popular in Zimpler online casinos, but also in most others).
Back to Mandzukic: due to muscle injury, he has only made five appearances for Milan after coming in January. The most recent was in the 2-2 draw with Red Star Belgrade at the UEFA Europa League match on February 18.
The Croatian is in his second stint in Italy, having previously spent four seasons at Juventus, where he won Serie A in all those seasons as well as the Coppa Italia three times. He previously played for Bayern Munich in Germany, where he claimed the treble (Bundesliga, DFB Pokal, and Champions League in 2013), and Atletico Madrid in Spain.
For some time now, there has been talking about Mandžuki? leaving the team from ‘The Fashion Capital of the World’. He did not integrate himself into the team as expected and it seems that parting ways with him is inevitable.
