Hibs’ highly-rated defender Ryan Porteous has become the first elite level male player from Scotland to join Common Goal, the growing social impact movement in global football.
Porteous has pledged a minimum of 1% of his football salary to help drive female empowerment. He joins four female Scotland internationals – the Manchester United striker Jane Ross, Christie Murray of Birmingham City, Reading’s Sophie Howard and Caroline Weir, the 25-year old Manchester City midfielder.
Robbie Crawford the former Rangers midfielder, currently playing in the US second tier with the Charleston Battery, is also a Common Goal member.
The Nigerian international Leon Balogun, who joined Rangers in July from Brighton, is also part of the social impact collective.
Porteous, who was born in Edinburgh, has become the 167th player or manager to join Common Goal, a collective that uses football to empower vulnerable children and young people around the world. He joins a team spanning 43 nationalities, playing, or managing in 53 leagues, with diverse members including Timo Werner, Alex Morgan, Jurgen Klopp, Casey Stoney MBE, Paulo Dybala, Pernille Harder and Serge Gnabry.
Porteous heard about the Common Goal movement, which is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, when Caroline Weir, who is also a client of 77 Sports Management, the agency founded by the tennis star Andy Murray, became the 150th member to join Common Goal earlier this year. Porteous has seen first-hand the extra obstacles his elder sister Emma, also a player, has had to overcome to try and pursue a career in football as a woman. He has chosen to support grassroots projects that use football to foster female empowerment and to drive Global Goal number five, gender equality.
Porteous said: “I have just been with the senior Scotland team, a very proud moment for me, but we can’t lose sight of what is happening around us and the need for collective action is clearer than ever. I am excited to join the Common Goal team and help empower girls to have the chance to realise any goal they may have in football and in life. It’s great to be the first homegrown Scottish Premiership player and I hope that many friends and players will join Common Goal.”
Juan Mata, who became the first player to join Common Goal in August 2017 said: “Along with Timo Werner joining a couple of weeks ago, I really hope that Ryan becoming a member is another step in raising awareness of Common Goal in UK football. There is an urgent need to work together. Football has a unique power to help solve the multiple challenges we are facing, whether that’s Covid-19, poverty, unemployment, discrimination, climate crisis, or gender equality.”
Caroline Weir said: “Half of the Common Goal members are women, and as a player I am so happy to see that a 21-year old such as Ryan, with a bright professional career ahead of him, has not only been inspired by the example of his female colleagues to join the cause, but he has also pledged his commitment to driving gender equality. The world is changing quickly, and it is up to as all to decide the direction in which we would like to go.”
Common Goal which reached its third anniversary on August 4th, 2020, has so far generated over €2.25 million for football for good organizations, plus has also allocated funds to 27 charities in communities hard-hit by the pandemic through the Common Goal Covid-19 Response Fund, launched in April this year.
The Common Goal movement was created in 2017 by streetfootballworld, the world’s leading organisation in the field of football for good. Common Goal encourages professional football players, managers, officials, and clubs to donate a minimum 1% of the entire football industry’s revenues – estimated 50 Billion Euros per year.
Since its inception in August 2017, 154 professional footballers and managers from over 35 countries have joined Common Goal, including Juan Mata, Jurgen Klopp and Megan Rapinoe. Also, influential football figures have joined the movement, such as UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin and Eric Cantona, along with a first professional club, FC Nordsjaelland, from the Danish elite league. Common Goal’s members have so far generated 2m Euros for high-impact football for good organisations in over 40 countries.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
