Wednesday, March 10, 2021 at 8:43 PM• Jeroen van Poppel • Last update: 20:47

Marcus Rashford became known as a benefactor during the corona crisis by standing up for the less fortunate in England. However, the 23-year-old Manchester United attacker has been doing that for much longer, his brother Dane announced WSJ Magazine. Dane had to teach his brother four years his junior how to wisely help the poor.

On May 30, 2016, Rashford signed his first serious contract as a Manchester United player at the age of eighteen. The Englishman went on to earn a little more than a million euros a year. From then on it began Rashy think about how he could help those around him. For example, he paid off his mother’s mortgage in one go and secretly put money bills in the cash register at Sam’s, a eatery where he used to go often.

Dane Rashford talks about an even more striking way his brother gave away money. “For a while he was in the habit of handing over money from his car to children and homeless people in Manchester,” Dane told the American magazine. His older brothers Dwaine and Dane then changed his mind. “It’s not safe to stop your car and do that,” explains Dane.

In 2019, Rashford was already involved in a campaign to distribute boxes of basic necessities to Manchester’s homeless community. A year later, when the corona crisis broke out, Rashford made the news again in that way. In March 2020, due to the corona crisis, a system was introduced in England whereby children from low-income families would receive food coupons so that they would receive healthy meals for free. When Rashford heard that the English government wanted to end aid in the summer, he put a stop to it.

In December, the British wanted to stop the food coupon system again, and again Rashford made sure it was extended. “There are certain things that are right, and certain things that are not right,” Rashford says. “And much about the system that is now available for these children is not correct. People cannot and should not close their eyes to that.” Rashford himself also grew up in relative poverty, he previously announced on social media. “Ten years ago I would have been one of those kids. And then no one would have heard my voice or seen with how much dedication I want to be a part of the solution to all the problems.”