Juan Mata and Common Goal: Football with Purpose
Juan Mata and Common Goal show what life beyond football can look like when a player decides influence should travel further than the pitch. What started in 2017 as Mata’s decision to donate one per cent of his salary has grown into one of football’s most visible social-impact movements, bringing together players, coaches, clubs, brands and community organisations around the idea that the game can do more.
Where It Started
Mata was the first professional footballer to join Common Goal and is also one of its co-founders. The original idea was simple but powerful: invite football figures to commit one per cent of their earnings to a collective fund supporting organisations that use football as a tool for social change. That gave the initiative a clear identity from the beginning, and it is still the reason Mata remains so closely associated with it today.
What Common Goal Looks Like Now
Today, Common Goal presents itself as the “home of football for good”, and the scale has moved far beyond one symbolic gesture. According to the organisation, its community now includes 201 community organisations, a global workforce of more than 12,000 people, 200+ professional athletes, and programmes that engage 3.6 million young people yearly across 117 countries. That growth matters because it turns Mata’s initiative from a good story into an actual football network with reach.
What The Initiative Focuses On
What makes Common Goal especially relevant now is that it no longer speaks only in broad terms about doing good. Its current work is organised around specific issues including gender equity, climate action, mental health, anti-racism, social integration and LGBTQ+ inclusion. In practice, that means backing community-led football projects while also using the wider cultural power of the psort to bring those themes into the mainstream.
What Is Happening Now
The initiative is still active and evolving. In 2024, Common Goal helped drive the Football for Sustainability Summit, bringing together around 300 experts from football, politics, business, civil society and science. More recently, it launched World Football Giving Day, with Juan Mata describing it as a natural next step for a movement that has been growing across the game for years. Mata also remains on Common Goal’s advisory board and continues to represent the project at forums including sustainability summits and Davos.
More Than A Side Project
That is what makes Juan Mata and Common Goal stand out. This is not a footballer attaching his name to a cause from a distance. It is a long-term commitment that has grown into one of the clearest examples of how football can build relevance beyond results, transfers and trophies. In an era where players are increasingly judged by what they stand for as well as how they perform, Mata’s initiative still feels like one of the strongest models in the game.
Ready for more?
If you want to read more about Juan Mata, check out our interview with him.
Read more on Juan Mata’s activities beyond the pitch in his Hall of Fame profile.
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