Home » Sandra Paños joins the Common Goal team

Sandra Paños joins the Common Goal team

Featured, Football, Sports / By /

Spanish International and Barcelona Femeni goalkeeper Sandra Paños is the newest player to join the Common Goal movement. 

Joining Hands with Common Goal

In a recent interview with DAZN, Sandra announced her collaboration with Common Goal. Streetfootballworld, the world’s largest organisation in the field of Football for Good, founded the Common Goal movement in 2017. Common Goal urges professional football players, managers, referees, and clubs to give at least 1% of their earnings to high-impact programmes that use football to promote progress toward Global Goals.

“Few things truly create the joy that football does. So taking that step further, we can truly help a lot, so I believe by doing this, by joining the Common Goal Cause, I’m taking that further step that can help a lot of people by doing practically nothing.” 

Sandra will be contributing 1% of her salary to the cause of her choice, i.e. the Global Goal 5 accelerator project. This project aims to give every girl an opportunity to develop to her full potential. The project aims to expand the share of female coaches and leaders in football for good community initiatives, guaranteeing that every girl has a female role model in her community. “If she can see it, she can be it.” 

In an industry notoriously known for being a male-dominated one, Sandra believes that both men and women working together to attain gender equality is the key. It is also one of the objectives of the Common Goal movement.

“Well, I believe that’s the key, to see men and women working in the same direction, for one sport, football. Football has no gender; I mean, it’s indeed taking a bit [longer] for women’s sports to develop. We’re on our way, but I believe that being supported by men helps us to develop even further. And this is the way to break down these barriers because football is football.”

Rivals on the pitch, United off the pitch

While we know the rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona has always been one of the biggest on the pitch, it’s a very different story off the pitch. Sandra is very vocal about being united off the pitch and how important it is to drive social change. 

“I believe that in women’s football, to continue breaking barriers and getting stronger, we need to work together, regardless of our crest, our race, everything. That’s the most important thing: togetherness, respect, and fighting so that women’s football can occupy the space it deserves.”

In DAZN’s UWCL content series ‘The Match Up’, Sandra is sent a special message by fellow Primera Iberdrola player and Common Goal member Babett Peter. 

“On the pitch, we may be rivals, but off the pitch, we will work together to drive social change through football. Together we can bring about real change.” – Babett Peter

In a week that is so important to both these teams as they go head-to-head in the second leg of the UWCL quarter-finals, Sandra has made it her mission to highlight football’s ability to bring about social change.

“I know there are many players, women and men, who are part of this movement, and I’m especially thrilled to help all these people who need it through football.” 

Sandra Paños is not the first Spanish player to join the cause. Players like Vero Boquete, Leila Ouahabi, Amanda Sampedro and Irene Paredes are amongst the many others contributing to the cause. 

Football Has No Gender

Sandra Paños is the goalkeeper of one of the best clubs in Europe, FC Barcelona. A team that won a treble last season inspired both girls and boys and created a benchmark in Spain and worldwide. The team keeps proving themselves and paving the way for future generations to achieve much more.

Sandra’s step to joining Common Goal is a significant one as she wants equal opportunities for everyone irrespective of their crest, race and gender. She also recognises how football has the potential to have a significant impact on people’s lives and everyone watching, as well as how it can be utilised to effect social change.

“I think we women and men footballers are ultimately in a privileged position because thanks to what we do and what we work towards, we can make many people happy. The best way to break down barriers is through football. And football has no gender.”

DAZN is Common Goal’s worldwide partner, and they have continually committed to achieving social change via a variety of projects. Having Sandra Panos on their team only helps them accelerate their work toward Changing the Game.

On March 30, you can watch live UWCL quarter-final action between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid on DAZN’s YouTube channel and the DAZN streaming platform.

 

Written by Unnati Naidu

Thanks for reading.

Follow Sporting Her on social media, links below:

Check out some of our latest articles