Manchester United’s Onana recognised for inspirational off-pitch endeavours

Manchester United and Cameroon goalkeeper Andre Onana is the winner of the 2024 FIFPRO Merit Impact Award.

Each year, FIFPRO, the worldwide representative organization for professional footballers with its global headquarters in Hoofddorp, Netherlands, pays tribute to players giving back to their communities with the Merit Awards, which are divided into the three categories of Activism, Impact, and Voice.

Onana picked the Impact Award with Linda Sallstrom taking the Player Activism Award for bringing about political or social change while Ga-Ae Kang won the Player Voice Award, for highlighting issues and influencing change.

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Sallstrom, Finland’s all-time top scorer has been vocal about human rights issues, such as equality, racism, and democracy while Kang is the main driver behind the efforts of Korean footballers and their union KPFA to elevate the well-being and rights of women’s players.

Onana launched the Andre Onana Foundation to provide free medical care and high-quality surgeries to underprivileged communities in Cameroon and other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The foundation collaborates with a group of surgeons and medical professionals who each year provide life-changing surgery and care to hundreds of people, particularly children. Doctors working with Onana’s foundation have performed over 1,200 surgical operations over the last three years.

"Winning the Player Impact Award means the foundation will receive a USD 10,000 (Ksh1.2 million) donation from FIFPRO. I want to thank FIFPRO and the Cameroonian player union Synafoc; this big donation is very welcome, and our team already has plans in place to do some nice things for the kids, hopefully in cooperation with UNICEF.

As for the future of the Andre Onana Foundation, we have a lot of things ahead. We’re in conversation with the United Nations to do a collaboration and our main priority going forward is to impact as many people as we can in the world," he said of the award.