Juventus and France Muslim star Paul Pogba has launched a fund in collaboration with a halal digital investment platform to fight poverty after his emotional experience with using foodbanks as a child.
The former Manchester United midfielder experienced a difficult childhood in which his family were forced to use food banks.
Pogba’s fund, run by a digital investment platform called Wahed, is based on Islamic principles known as waqf, Arabic for endowment.
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“I remember we used to go there when I was four or five,” the 30-year-old told Sky Sports.
“They help you with milk, sugar and all this stuff, and my mum used to go there and queue. She was a mother of three and divorced from my father.”
“I didn’t just come up like this and have money. I struggled and it made me improve and grow, I now have value of money and value of life, I know what it is to struggle, I saw it, my mother did it,” he added.
As a practicing Muslim, Pogba said charity is an important part of his faith, adding that high-profile athletes have a social responsibility to help communities.
“I want to help because it can be huge for some people,” he said. “It’s nothing for us but it can be huge for them.”
Islamic Waqf
Run by a digital investment platform called Wahed, the new fund aims to create a self-sustaining model of giving.
“Essentially it is a perpetual endowment where you give money that is invested and the income that’s generated from that is used for good,” explained Wahed’s compliance director, Umer Suleman.
The partnership will focus on education, alleviating poverty and sustainable development, guided by the principles of Islamic finance and social responsibility.
Launching the fund in the UK, Pogba says he wants to take it worldwide.
“You have to start somewhere,” he said. “You can start with one person then two, then three, and then it will get bigger and bigger.
“We just try to help as much as we can and hopefully if we can touch everyone ending poverty would be the goal.”
Wahed is an online Halal investing platform that’s making investing in line with your values more accessible, easy and affordable to everyone.
Several Muslim athletes have been known for their charity efforts all through the year.
Last year, Bayern Munich star Sadio Mane won the Socrates Award which acknowledged his charity work in his native Senegal.
Liverpool super star Mohamed Salah also ranked eighth on the Sunday Times Giving List for 2022.