Paulo Dybala: 'Lots of People Pay More Attention to Footballers Than to Presidents'

Paulo Dybala in action against Lazio in July. Photograph: Marco Alpozzi/AP
Paulo Dybala in action against Lazio in July. Photograph: Marco Alpozzi/AP
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Paulo Dybala: 'Lots of People Pay More Attention to Footballers Than to Presidents'

Paulo Dybala in action against Lazio in July. Photograph: Marco Alpozzi/AP
Paulo Dybala in action against Lazio in July. Photograph: Marco Alpozzi/AP

It is only a few days since Juventus beat Sampdoria to seal their ninth consecutive Scudetto, and Paulo Dybala already has his mind on other challenges. Football still has plenty of those in store for him, of course, particularly with his team taking a one-goal deficit into next Friday’s Champions League game at home to Lyon, but recently he has been considering other matters entirely.

The most significant outcome is his decision to join Common Goal, pledging at least 1% of his salary to a collective fund which uses football as a tool to educate and empower children and young people and joining Juan Mata, Jürgen Klopp, Megan Rapinoe and his clubmate Giorgio Chiellini on its list of donors, now 159 strong. It is a movement that is slowly increasing in size and momentum, a process that Dybala’s intervention – as the first major South American footballer to sign up – could accelerate. But the 26-year-old’s decision is also a step on a personal journey.

“I’ve given to charity before,” he says, “but I’ve always done it anonymously, because the purpose is not to get publicity but to help those in need. But I think to be part of this initiative, to be one of 159 people working together, is important in a different way. We’ve come together as a group and we want to work as a team in solidarity with people less fortunate than ourselves.”

Footballers who sign up to Common Goal can have an input into where they want their money to be used, and Dybala’s will go towards projects not only in his native Argentina but also in Israel, Palestine, Pakistan, India and Rwanda. “It is something that I decided with my family and the people I work with, and my mother is going to be very involved in the movement,” he says. “For her this is a very beautiful and very important project. We have always tried to help people – my mother always likes to tell me it’s something I have to do, and of course I have to respect her opinion.

“Sometimes I look at society and I see things that I would like to change. It sounds ridiculous, but I would love to be able to change the world in just a small way. The truth is that football is a powerful weapon. For whatever reason, the things we say are heard around the world, and lots of people pay more attention to footballers than they do to presidents and prime ministers and important politicians. I think we have to use the power we are given to send positive messages, and to be strong role models. I believe that if everyone in football came together we could give so much and achieve so much, to help people in need and to fulfill the ambitions of so many children.”

Dybala says that “football is my passion and it has been my life since I was three years old”, but he is aware that had he failed to make it as a player he would have faced an uncertain future as someone with no qualifications and few outside interests, and the focus of his charitable work is informed by his own experience.

“I know so many people, friends of mine, who came so close but football is like life – a lot of the time it is not just about what you do, but about who sees it, and what they think about it. Along the way you need a lot of luck. A lot of my friends never made it, and at a certain moment found themselves a bit lost, not knowing what to do and which way to go.

“I had the good fortune to get where I have, but if it hadn’t happened for me I’ve no idea what I would have done. That’s what I keep thinking about. Many young people who dream of going into football never learn anything else, and they never know about all the alternative paths that might have been there for them. I think education is such a powerful tool for giving people a helping hand. Once a person has an education there is so much they can achieve that might otherwise have been beyond them. Football can help bring people into education, give them a future, and the potential to live a full life.”

Dybala talks of his life after football, in which he hopes “to have more time to spend with my family, but also more time to help other people”. He has much to achieve before that, with his sporting CV featuring no international or European trophies but plenty of Italian domestic honors including five Scudetti. In England no team have won more than three league titles in a row, and before this Juve side the Italian record stood at five.

“It can be hard to maintain concentration and ambition, but every victory is special,” he says. “I think that’s the most important thing. I like to win, my teammates like to win, and the club likes to win, and it’s that desire that makes us winners – but of course it helps that we have the strongest players in the world in every position. We’re proud of ourselves, to win nine titles in a row is incredible, and we’re already thinking about a 10th.

“First though we need to turn our attention to the Champions League. It’s been such a long season already. The first game against Lyon was five months ago and so many things have happened in between, but we know what we can still achieve. It’ll be strange to play in the Champions League without fans, and to play just one tie in each round, but first we have to win in Turin. For now, that’s all that matters.”

(The Guardian)



Mohamed Salah: Liverpool’s Egyptian King

Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Everton - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - April 2, 2025 Liverpool's Mohamed Salah during the warm up before the match. (Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Everton - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - April 2, 2025 Liverpool's Mohamed Salah during the warm up before the match. (Reuters)
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Mohamed Salah: Liverpool’s Egyptian King

Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Everton - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - April 2, 2025 Liverpool's Mohamed Salah during the warm up before the match. (Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Everton - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - April 2, 2025 Liverpool's Mohamed Salah during the warm up before the match. (Reuters)

A living legend in Liverpool, Mohamed Salah has two more years to burnish his astonishing legacy at Anfield after extending his contract on Friday.

In the midst of constant speculation over his future, the 32-year-old has produced one of the great all-time individual seasons to take the Reds to the brink of the Premier League title.

The Egyptian has scored 27 goals and provided 17 assists in 31 league appearances to help Arne Slot's men open up an 11-point lead for with seven games to go.

A third player of the year award from both his fellow players and football writers is a formality as Salah's latest prolific season has propelled him into the debate over who is the greatest player of the Premier League era.

Salah's 184 goals in the English topflight is the joint fifth highest in Premier League history, while he also now sits in the top 10 for assists.

He did not arrive at Anfield as a superstar destined for greatness when Liverpool paid Roma £34 million ($44 million) for his services in 2017.

Liverpool's Mohamed Salah lifts the trophy after winning the Champions League final match between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid, on June 2, 2019. (AP)

As a pacy winger with promise, Salah had hitherto struggled for consistency and end product with a string of European clubs since making the move from his homeland to Swiss side Basel as a 19-year-old.

Salah failed to make the grade in his first spell in the Premier League at Chelsea as the Blues discarded him after just 19 games in what proved to be a monumental mistake.

A move to Italy, firstly on loan at Fiorentina, before heading to Roma on a permanent basis restored Salah's reputation to tempt Liverpool into taking a punt on his potential, even if he was not Jurgen Klopp's first choice.

The German manager had wanted his compatriot Julian Brandt instead, but was convinced by the club's recruitment team and together they rebuilt the Reds into a force of English and European football once more.

- Fitness fanatic -

Klopp did not take long to be convinced as Salah scored 44 times in a stunning debut season, leading Liverpool to the Champions League final and a top-four Premier League finish.

He was quickly christened "The Egyptian King" on Merseyside and soon the trophies began to flow like his goals.

Salah left the 2018 Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid in tears after being forced off by a shoulder injury in the first half which also limited the impact he could make for his country at the World Cup finals in Russia a few weeks later.

One year on, he scored in the final as Liverpool beat Tottenham 2-0 to deliver the first silverware of the Klopp era.

The club's first Premier League title for 30 years followed in the coronavirus-disrupted 2019/2020 season.

The FA Cup, two League Cups and another run to the Champions League final in 2022 underlined Liverpool's return to serial trophy contenders under Klopp -- and with it Salah's heightened status within the game and further afield.

He was named among Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2019 in which he was described as an "iconic figure for Egyptians, Scousers and Muslims the world over."

Liverpool's Mohamed Salah controls the ball during the English Premier League match between Liverpool and Newcastle United at Anfield stadium in Liverpool, England, on Dec. 16, 2021. (AP)

Salah has used that profile to call for greater gender equality in the Arab world and to appeal for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza following an Israeli air bombardment last year.

However, he has mostly done his talking on the field.

A fitness fanatic, Salah regularly posts images of his workouts on social media which he credits for allowing him to remain among the world's best despite his advancing age.

Klopp's emotional departure last year was seen by many as the end of an era for this Liverpool side.

Instead, in the first season under Dutch coach Slot, Salah has been the catalyst for an unexpected cruise towards the Premier League title.

"It's not a coincidence because the first day I arrived over here, we did a fitness test and he was our fittest player," said Slot.

"So it tells you what his plans were for the season. It also tells you a player that has so many great seasons at a club like this comes back like that tells you a lot about his personality."