Look To The Stars News: Zinedine Zidane

Rafael Nadal And Kelly Slater Win Sports Awards For Charity

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 12:00:00 +0000

The 2011 Laureus World Sports Awards returned to Abu Dhabi on February 7, where the who’s who of the sports and entertainment industry gathered to salute the finest sports performances of the year.

The winners, as voted by the Laureus World Sports Academy, the ultimate sports jury, made up of 46 of the greatest sportsmen and sportswomen of all time, were announced at a televised Awards Ceremony staged at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi hosted by double Oscar winner Kevin Spacey.

Proceeds from the event directly benefit the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation which supports almost 80 community projects around the world and have helped to improve the lives of more than one million young people through the use of sport.

Ronaldo And Zidane Play Match Against Poverty

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 13:00:00 +0000

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Goodwill ambassadors Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane grabbed some friends and took on an all-star side from Olympiakos for the eighth edition of the ‘Match Against Poverty’ on December 14 near Athens, Greece.

Organized to put a spotlight on the global fight against poverty, the soccer match raised funds to aid the nearly 25 million people affected by the Haiti earthquake in January and the Pakistan floods that started in July.

Maria Sharapova To Make Charity Trip To Belarus

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:00:00 +0000

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Goodwill Ambassador Maria Sharapova will head straight from the 2010 Wimbledon tournament to Belarus to visit an area affected by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

The tennis star plans to travel to the Gomel region where her charitable foundation has helped fund a number of UNDP youth-focused projects.

The UNDP projects provide new opportunities for young people in Gomel and improve living conditions for their communities. In the town of Chechersk, Sharapova will visit a local arts centre where children learn about the environment and work on projects to beautify the town; she will then stop over at a health facility using a therapeutic approach to emotional and mental stress. Finally, she will meet with the recipients of her foundation’s scholarships, who attend the country’s top universities.

Football Stars Kick Out Poverty At FIFA World Cup

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:00:00 +0000

To kick-off the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Goodwill Ambassadors Didier Drogba and Zinedine Zidane launched an anti-poverty TV spot appealing for the world to live up to the challenge and join the team that will beat poverty.

“There can be no spectators in the fight against poverty,” said Chelsea striker Drogba, and Cote d’Ivoire national team captain. “We all need to be on the pitch to improve the lives of millions of poor people in this world.”

Prince Albert II Joins Zidane In Cape Town For Charity

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:30:00 +0000

HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco and football icon Zinedine Zidane, in his capacity as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), visited a sports community center in the municipality of Gugulethu in Cape Town, South Africa, on Saturday.

The Ikhaya Lemidadlo Sport for Development is a community center for sports activities and youth education in the municipality of Gugulethu, 14 km from Cape Town. The initiative, which was launched in 2009, resulted from a partnership between the Principality of Monaco, UNDP, the World Alliance of Cities against Poverty network and the City of Cape Town.

Robbie Williams Scores A Hit For UNICEF With Charity Soccer

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Woody Harrelson scored the winning goal in Sunday’s Soccer Aid football match to benefit UNICEF.

The match – organized by Robbie Williams and held at Manchester’s Old Trafford – featured two teams of celebrities, including Mike Myers, Gordon Ramsay, Alan Shearer, Zinedine Zidane and many others.

The game, which attracted tens of thousands of fans and raised over US$3 million, was decided by a penalty shoot-out.

Antonio Banderas Named As United Nations Goodwill Ambassador

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:30:00 +0000

The United Nations Development Programme has announced that Antonio Banderas will be its new Goodwill Ambassador for the fight against poverty.

“Poverty robs us of our potential as a people, preventing us from being all that we can be,” said Banderas. “This is why it is so important to mobilize all of our efforts to defeat it, especially if today we have the knowledge, the tools and the resources to do it.”

In his new role as an advocate for the poor, Antonio Banderas will set his sights on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s), a set of eight globally agreed targets that seek to halve world poverty by 2015 by combating hunger, disease, illiteracy, environment degradation and discrimination against women.

Zinedine Zidane To Play In Haiti Charity Soccer Game

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:30:00 +0000

In the wake of the massive devastation in Haiti, the United Nations Development Programme and its players have decided to raise funds in support of relief efforts through an exhibition soccer match.

The game, to be played in Lisbon January 25, has drawn some heavy hitters. Invited soccer stars include Brazilian midfielder Kaka and retired soccer star/humanitarian Zinedine Zidane, both of whom are Goodwill Ambassadors of the UNDP.

Missing from the exhibition game will be Ronaldo. Due to commitments to his Club Corinthians-FC on Jan. 24, Ronaldo opted to invite Brazilian teammate and friend Kaka, who is also a UN Goodwill Ambassador for the WFP, to play in his place.

Ronaldo And Zidane To Play Charity Soccer

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:00:00 +0000

As Goodwill Ambassadors for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), football stars Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane will play together with other renowned footballers for a friendly match against a SLBenfica All Stars team. For the first time, Ronaldo and Zidane will be on the same side in a match that will recall the urgency of working together to address global poverty.

“No one is a spectator in the struggle to end poverty,” said Ronaldo, who now plays for Corinthians in Brazil. “It is only through working together, on the same team, that we will achieve the Millennium Development Goals.”

David Beckham Joins Zidane For Charity Launch

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Ex-Real Madrid teammates David Beckham and Zinedine Zidane came together at a charity event during the weekend to launch a new campaign that aims to develop new soccer fields for urban communities in need across the USA.

Footprint Fields is a community outreach program supported by Adidas, MLS W.O.R.K.S., and Major League Soccer. This year, the program aims to build fields in communities in New York, Milwaukee, Seattle, California and Washington. The fields will all be state-of-the-art FieldTurf, a synthetic surface that is designed to replicate individual blades of natural grass.

“The ‘Footprint Fields’ program is designed to encourage soccer players of all levels and backgrounds to pick up a ball and join 10 friends on the field to play the beautiful game of soccer,” said Patrik Nilsson, Adidas America President. “From cleats and balls to uniforms and fields, providing the right equipment and infrastructure is an important way we can inspire and enable an American soccer nation.”

Soccer Stars Take A Kick Against Poverty

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:00:00 +0000

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.