FCBARCELONA.CAT

09.03.2010 12:02

Messi, new Unicef ambassador

www.fcbarcelona.cat

Lionel Messi will be unveiled on Thursday as a new Unicef worldwide ambassador for goodwill – the first time a Barça player has acquired this distinction.

Lionel Messi will be presented in his new role in the Sala París at the Camp Nou. At 13:30 he will be giving a press conference in the company of President Joan Laporta and Philip O'Brien, worldwide director of corporate partnerships for Unicef.

In favour of children’s rights

Messi will be working to benefit the most vulnerable children in the world. He and Unicef will be involved in a series of activities aimed at supporting children’s rights. Messi thus joins an extraordinary list of goodwill ambassadors, who include cinema’s Orlando Bloom and Mia Farrow, and singers Shakira Mebarak and Ricky Martin.

Barça’s first world ambassador

This will be first time that the United Nations Agency has made an ambassador of an FC Barcelona player. The fame of these people is an important tool that the UN can use to promote its actions, and for that reason, these personages are often seen visiting the different projects in person.

Messi has always shown concern for social problems, as reflected by the foundation he set up himself, and this move represents one further step in the Argentine star’s commitment to Unicef and its charity work.