Retired footballer has a new goal

Retired Manchester United striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer plans to use the proceeds of a testimonial match to build ten schools in southern Africa.

The schools will each cost between £20,000 and £200,000 and will be built in Angola, Malawi and Mozambique under a programme run by Unicef. The money will also provide reading, writing and sports equipment for the schools. Unicef will then hand the running of the schools to local government. Solskjaer has been a goodwill ambassador for the worldwide children’s charity since 2001.

The match, between Manchester United and the Spanish club Espanyol, will take place on 2nd August at Old Trafford and is expected to raise around £2m.

Solskjaer has said he will use his own personal funds for the project if he cannot raise enough from his game. There is a lot of interest in the testimonial match for such a popular player and 60,000 tickets have already been sold. Solskjaer played for Manchester United from 1996 until 2007 and scored the winning goal in the 1999 European cup final.

The Norwegian player is well known for philanthropy in his native country. In 2005 he announced he was donating all the earnings from a £70,000-a-year kit deal with Nike, and £30,000 from an advertisement for Brunost, a Norwegian cheese, to Unicef.