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45 international players will join  UNDP Goodwill Ambassadors Ronaldo and Zidane for the Match Against Poverty in Malaga

UNDP Goodwill Ambassadors Ronaldo and Zidane announce that around 40 friends and colleagues will be joining them on the pitch for the Match Against Poverty on November 19 at the Estadio de La Rosaleda at 7.00 pm in Malaga, Spain.

Among those in the 45-player line-up are Robert Pires (Villarreal), Víctor Valdéz and Eidur Gidjohnsen (FC Barcelona), Michel Salgádo and Roberto Soldado (Real Madrid), Carlos Diogo and Ricardo Oliveira (Real Zaragoza), Aitor Ocio (Athletic Bilbao), Idriss Kameni (Espanyol Barcelona), Renato (Sevilla), Antonio López and Mista (Atlético Madrid), Marta (Umea IK), Nuno and Pedro Emanuel (FC Porto), Peter Jehle (Boavista), Roque Junior (Duisburg), Lua-Lua (Olympiakos), Juliano Belletti (Chelsea) et Pavel Nedved (Juventus) and Sami AL Jaber (Saudi Arabia). More confirmations of top international names are expected shortly.

Ronaldo and Zidane will each captain an international side for this friendly aimed at inviting the public to mobilize against poverty. The Match also seeks to remind underline that everyone is responsible for ensuring the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were adopted in 2000 and re-affirmed by the leaders of 191 countries at the UN Summit in 2005. The Goals seek to halve world poverty by 2015 by setting targets for rolling back hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women. 

Among the coaches of the Match Against Poverty, Javier Aguirre from Mexico of Atlético Madrid has confirmed his participation. Italian Pierluigi Collina will be the referee of the game for the 5th fifith consecutive time. More than 20 TV television channels around the world are expected to broadcast the match live. 250 journalists are already accredited to the event.

As for with the preceding previous editions, all proceeds from ticket sales will go to projects selected by UNDP in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Proceeds from the first four Matches were used to help allowed supplyprovide ing 3000 children in Haiti with school suppliesdidactic and scholastic material; building a healthcare center and a school in the Democratic Republic of Congo; employing and training 350 people in construction in Sri Lanka where 75 sanitation facilities and 44 community toilets were installed and water installations established; opening a vocational training center for young blind people; creating small enterprises for women in the Comoros, Guinea Bissau and Burkina Faso; training 1200 employees of 200 small companies in Namibia as well as 93 producers of guava in Colombia; and to build sports centers for low income communities in Morocco. Other anti-poverty actions were funded in Brazil, Bhutan, Cuba and Vietnam. More recently, in Madagascar, 300 rickshaw drivers saw their vehicle replaced by cycle rickshaws, which considerably improved their working conditions. In Tanzania, women are being trained on construction and use of firewood stoves (200 units), purchase of power tillers, installation of platforms for processing palm oil and a soap making industry, and 60 members of the community are being trained on various energy and environmental issues. In Uganda 400 bikes have been purchased in order to facilitate the work of a women’s group which is ir mobility and allow them to get more involved in supporting post conflict peace building  processes, as well as to enable Internally displaced people and refugees to travel back to their hometown.

All these projects are designed to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In this regard, the United Nations, Google and Cisco have created an online site that tracks progress towards decreasing global poverty by 2015. The website www.MDGMonitor.org tracks progress toward the MDGs in a number of categories in nearly every country in the world.  The site presents the most current data from multiple sources in development bellwethers like public health, education and women’s empowerment. By laying out areas of progress and continuing challenge for the world to see, MDG Monitor aspires to keep the global community’s eye firmly fixed on the Millennium Goals, and to provide vital information for policy makers and development practitioners worldwide.

Malaga citizens residents have responded massively with all tickets already sold out. Spanish Minister of Infrastructure Magdalena Alvarez Arza;, Spanish Secretary of State for International Cooperation Leire Pajin;, Secretary General of AECI (Agencia Española de cooperación internacional), Juan Pablo de Laiglesia;, Francisco de la Torre, Mayor of Malaga; and Cécile Molinier, Director of the UNDP Office in Geneva, will be among the high- ranking officials who will be attending the match.