Liverpool and Scotland international Andy Robertson has launched his new Charity ‘AR26′ -targeting children specifically from socially-deprived areas.
The 26-year-old full back originally from Glasgow aims to aid children and young people regardless of their gender, race or background.
Robertson, who just last week led Scotland to their first major international tournament in 22 years, spoke of his desire to help and guide those from socially deprived backgrounds.
Speaking to Paul Gorst from the Liverpool Echo this evening on a special launch live stream, Robertson spoke of the social gap he still feel exists.
“To be fair Liverpool and Everton do an excellent amount within the community and when you become a part of that and you sign for one of these clubs it almost becomes your duty to buy into that.
“A lot of the lads have done great work with the food banks and stuff like that within Liverpool, as we all know the percentage of people that use them within the city is very high.
“For me, I wanted to start something and its something id thought about for a few years now and now was the right time to do it’ added the former Hull City defender.”
Outlined clearly on the charities website, are the 3 main targets set-out by the Robertson and his team, for the future work they aim to provide:
- Football for All: The AR26 Football Academy staff will provide children and young people across Scotland with free fun football sessions through community-run and afterschool lessons to help encourage them to lead a healthy and active lifestyle.
- Hope for Youths: Helping provide young people with access to further education, training and job opportunities.
- Life Changing Experiences: Creating memories for sick children and their families through once in a life-time experiences.
“Im really passionate about it, and I hope its for a long long time and we can be so successful with it as I do believe we can make a difference with the visions we have.
“If we can just even that gap even so slightly then you know what we can walk away from it whenever that comes that we are happy with it.
“I do believe this gap is getting a lot bigger with these underprivileged kids and I feel sometimes they get left behind and I don’t really think that’s fair’ added the Scotland International.”
Simultaneously, the Liverpool left back is also releasing a book titled ‘Robbo: Now You’re Gonna Believe Us’.
An avid reader and writer, Robertson said he wanted to give supporters and the wider the football world an insight into to what it was like from inside the dressing room.
