sport news Liverpool and Man Utd legends Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville raising £350K ... trends now
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher knows what it means for someone to have your back, but that realisation came long before his 737 never-say-die appearances for the Reds.
It was growing up in Liverpool that the Sky Sports presenter first saw the value of a helping hand and now he is leading a star-studded campaign to give youngsters the support they need through the charity, Football for Change.
As a lad, the Bootle born, former defender, was often to be found at the Brunswick Youth and Community Centre, known locally as the Brunny, which helped give him the platform from which he launched his stellar career.
Jamie Carragher has forged a fantastic career, winning the Champions League with Liverpool, but still appreciates the helping hand he received from his local youth centre as a youngster
A mural was painted in Bootle last year, opposite the 'Brunny', as a tribute to Carragher
'It was this community,' the 2005 Champions League winner recently told his local paper. 'If you weren't in school or you weren't at home, you were at the Brunny, That's what it was like, not just for me, but for almost every kid around there.'
Carragher was brought to the Brunny by his dad when he was just seven years old. The 'football gym' has not changed in almost four decades since that day when 'Carra''s father asked the lads if he could join in a kick-a-bout.
Now Carragher, who has 38 England caps, is using his position as one of the highest profile football pundits in the country, and his experience, to raise huge amounts of cash to help disadvantaged young people find work and improve their education.
The Liverpool legend has launched the Football for Change project, supported by Gary Neville
Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard, with Ardonagh Retail CEO Ian Donaldson supporting Football for Change
Carragher has raided his contacts book and pulled together an all-star line-up to raise money for projects up and down the country through an initiative called Football for Change, which MailOnline is supporting.
The former Red, turned presenter, joined forces with current players Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Everton's Conor Coady and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, to launch the campaign in 2021, when the Covid pandemic was isolating young people in Liverpool and in cities across the UK.
Football For Change has already raised £350,000 through a celebrity lunch and then a dinner, held at the Titanic Hotel in Liverpool, last November. But next week a black-tie gala at the Emirates Old Trafford cricket ground in Manchester will aim to raise the bar even higher and rake in another £350,000 for the cause.
Frenemy number one, Sky Sports colleague and former Manchester United and England full back, Gary Neville, is on board, while Borussia Dortmund and England midfielder Jude Bellingham is a supporter, along with Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard and England's Euro 2022 winners, Beth Mead and Toni Duggan, plus Spurs' Lucas Moura and MOTD pundits Alan Shearer, Peter Crouch and Gary Lineker.
Diehard Manchester City fan, Noel Gallagher will be the headline act at the swanky bash with his High Flying Birds and
