The 23-year-old sports star is a fully fledged national hero. It’s time to celebrate his commitment and grace – but remember he should not have to do any of this
In April, when Matt Hancock suggested that Premier League footballers should “play their part” in helping ease the financial crisis caused by the pandemic, what he meant was that they should accept sweeping cuts to their salaries. You know, just like MPs didn’t. What the health secretary could not have imagined was that one footballer would “play his part” by launching a snowballing campaign to prevent children in England from going hungry. Or that in doing so he would highlight underlying inequality and the plight of England’s poorest families.
At the beginning of 2020, the most urgent task facing the England star Marcus Rashford was recovering from a double stress fracture in his back so that he would be match fit for his Manchester United games. But that turned out to be a minor detail in his extraordinary year (his vertebrae got none of the media attention they were due). Instead, in the spring, with the pandemic having brought the 2019-20 season to a halt, the 23-year-old centre-forward used his free time and growing influence to become a formidable voice for social justice. He took on the UK government – and, crucially, won over the public, too. So now, at the end of this bleak year, Marcus Rashford MBE is a fully fledged national hero, recognised here and abroad for his poverty activism as much as for his footballing talent.
