Aspire in the World Fellows Book - 2022

91 90 that if we wanted to get to that level, we had to work harder than them. You retired, moved quite quickly into Miami FC and later Salford City. As you were telling me about the businesses, a little smile came onto your face and you are getting enjoyment, you are getting a buzz. You’re not playing football, but you’ve now got big businesses and you’re enjoying them. Are there challenges as well? Of course, I’m enjoying them. You know I love to have businesses that I enjoy because I think that’s the important part of success. I’m now surrounded by another great team within my business, I think that’s an important part of that. I think that I’ve been able to go into different businesses and different opportunities. I was lucky, I played till I was 38 years old, and it was a pretty long career and I was proud of that. I knew, around about 30 years old that I had to start preparing for when I retired, not that I took my eye off the ball. I was planning for the future, and I started that on the business side. I knew that I had to be ready once I retired to jump into something else because I wanted to continue to work. I wanted to continue to travel and do different things. I just won the French League with PSG, and the day after I flew to Miami and I announced the team in Miami that I was very proud of and excited about, but that was another challenge. I thought that I would be able to announce the team in MLS in Miami and within two years I’d be up and playing with a team and a stadium. I was so wrong. Seven years after, we then finally come into the league, and the day before we were playing our first game, the pandemic hit, and everything closed down. It’s had its challenges, but I think nothing in life is easy. I knew this was worth fighting for and that’s why I stayed with it. There were many occasions where people around me, within the business at the time were saying, “You know, this is maybe something that we should just let go of.” I remember having a conversation with the commissioner who said, “You know, it’s going to be really tough, Maybe you should…” And I said, “Commissioner, I’m going to stop you there. I’m continuing with this. I’m going to make it happen. Miami’s going to be a success.” It’s still challenging at times, but I’m very proud of where we are, and what we’ve achieved there. My proudest moment is the fact that we have an academy, that we have 12-year- old children up until 23-year-old boys that are very good players, and we are giving them a safe space to play the game that we all love and giving them the opportunity to play professional football. And in all honesty, that’s my proudest thing about the team in Miami because we have some of the academy kids that are now coming into the full team, and that’s my proudest thing. I’ll move to Salford City and that’s reuniting with members of the class of ‘92, which is part of Manchester United history. That must be special. It is really special to be with the lads that I grew up with, owning a team in Salford, where we all grew up. That was where all of our lodgings were. It was where our training ground was. It’s where we spent most of our young years. To be able to be part of that and to also have some great academy kids coming through, and a great academy that we’re bringing through into the full team, it’s a real community. The Salford community is a strong, passionate community. Having Miami and having Salford is something that I’m very proud of. I’m very excited about it because they’re both doing pretty well at the moment. It’s exciting, but it still has its challenges, but what doesn’t? You are a Qatar 2022 global ambassador. We see your face regularly. What’s impressed you most of all about Qatar? Many things, many things. I’ve been coming to Qatar for a long time now. You know, my first time was in 2010 as an AC Milan player, and we spent time at the Aspire Academy. I was blown away, blown away by the people, the way they welcomed us, the passion, the culture, and their plan for the future. You only have to look at the Aspire Academy to see that there is a plan and there is a plan for the future. I think that has been around for a long, long time. The plan for a legacy didn’t start because the World Cup is coming here. The plan for a legacy started a long, long time ago. I think when you really look at the culture and the football culture here, there’s a rich history of it and there’s a rich history of fans that love the game. I love coming here. I love spending time here and I’m very excited about the future. Culture and the lifestyle, you do seem to have settled in. I love the video you’ve done when you’re zooming through on The Pearl on your bike and getting a real taste for it and really being part of it. I’ve done a lot of great things here. People turn around to me and say, “What’s it like? I’ve never been before, what can we do?” When I show them the stuff that I’ve done, into the Inland Sea, out to the desert and stayed in a tent, camping, cooking barbecues out in the desert, or riding around on the motorbike. I’ve done a lot of things and one of the things that I always love doing when I travel is going to the local places. I told a story today, one of the things that I was able to do once I retired was travel to Asia a lot and I always tried to find the local places, not just the fancy restaurants. When I was in Japan, I turned around to someone in the hotel and I said, “Tell me where you would go with your family?” They said, “Okay, you have to go there about two o’clock in the morning.” That’s really late, but I’m up for it. “There’s this place where all the taxi drivers go. It’s the best ramen in Tokyo, go there.” I was a bit skeptical and then I went, I woke up at 2:00 AM and went there and it was the best ramen. So that’s the kind of thing that I like to do. I walk through the Souq, and I go and have a nice karak, those are the kind of things that I like to do. One of the things that I also like to do, which I found out very recently, I got told about it today. I went to this amazing breakfast place that does amazing karak. It’s one of the places that I’ve told my friends to go to when they come here. It’s run by this amazing lady, and she was one of the first women to start a business in the Souq. It’s a foundation that was started by Sheikha Moza, to empower women to start businesses. This lady has now gone on to be an incredible entrepreneur. She has this amazing restaurant. She has this amazing spice market that’s next to the restaurant. You should go there because the karak is amazing. It’s one of my favorite things to do, I like finding places like that. Let’s turn to the football in Qatar. 48 days away, Qatar will open the World Cup against Ecuador. It’s the first time Qatar are playing in a World Cup and it’s at home. Would you have some words of advice? I think enjoy the moment. Simple as that. Take it in because to play in a World Cup is the ultimate. When you look at this Qatar team, it’s young, it’s vibrant. 95% of it has come from the Aspire Academy, and that means something. It means something to the people here. It means something to the region. This World Cup coming to this part of the world is bigger than just Qatar. It’s bigger than that. It’s a bigger story. It’s something that culturally has changed many things. We talk about legacy, we talk about the game, and what the game can do. The game unites people like no other game in the world. It’s why it’s the biggest and best game in the world and the most popular game in the world. When you talk about how it unites, you’ll see that in 48 days. The stadiums are ready. People are ready. People are excited. When you are the host, the whole world wants the host to do well. There’s a young team playing here, an exciting team. There’s going to be a certain amount of pressure, but there’s pressure on every one of the players and every one of the countries in a World Cup. The host team should go out and enjoy it. Remember this moment because their families, their friends, everybody that knows these young kids that have grown up in this region, grown up in Qatar, they’re going to be proud of them the moment that they step on that pitch. There are young kids around Qatar, young kids around this part of the world that will be inspired by this World Cup and that’s what we want. Our game is about inspiring the next generation, then the next generation. This is why it’s important. This is why a World Cup is important. Your work goes beyond football. You’re busy with philanthropic initiatives, UNICEF as an ambassador. Do you look at sport and football in particular as a strong, humanitarian tool? Without a doubt. It is the most powerful sport in the world. The best work that I have done since I’ve retired, and the most important work that I do is my UNICEF work. I’ve been lucky to be a UNICEF Ambassador for 18 years now, and it’s my proudest thing that I do. UNICEF does incredible work for children around the world and to play a small part in that, I’m incredibly proud to be part of an organization that does so much. The one thing that unites and brings people together, when I’m on the road and I go to different villages, wherever it is around the world, is football. Whether you are driving through townships and you see a small TV on, in a small place on the street. There are people surrounding it, watching football. It’s what brings people together. It’s what unites nations. It’s what unites different cultures around the world. That’s why it’s so important because the game does unite people in ways that no other sport can. What could be the main legacy that Qatar 2022 World Cup gives the world? You only have to look at Aspire. That’s legacy. Bringing a World Cup to a region and to a part of the world like this does. Like I said before, you want to inspire the next generations to want to play this game. It’s not just about becoming a professional. It’s about the investment into wellness, into health, into the future of not just Qatar, but the region. The next generation of footballers or sports stars or just people that want to be healthy and enjoy sports. The legacy of this game, of this World Cup is not just about what’s happened to Qatar over the last 12 years, it’s what happens after that and the investment that has gone into this World Cup. You don’t think there’s going be a legacy after that? It’s something that is part of a huge plan. I’ve been lucky enough, obviously since I played in Paris and played for PSG. I was lucky to meet his Highness and I know how passionate he is about the game. He knows more about my career than I know about my career. The times that I’ve sat with him and spoken about Manchester United, about the goals that I scored, he knows more than I know, and what my parents know about my career, so I know how passionate he is. I know how passionate he is to make sure that this World Cup is for everybody, it is going to be a huge success. If there’s one word that you can pick out to describe what the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will be, what will it be? One word? Exciting.