When the world’s most popular sport meets the world’s most pressing problems, the results can be extraordinary. The United Nations thinks so, at least. On World Football Day, 25 May, sixteen of football’s most celebrated current and former players and coaches were appointed as Football for the Goals Champions, tasked with using their considerable public profiles to advance the Sustainable Development Goals.

The roster is deliberately eclectic. Carlo Ancelotti, whose managerial career has taken in the greatest clubs on the continent, sits alongside Eni Aluko, a winner in both the Women’s Super League and Serie A. Javier Zanetti, the Argentine who became a legend at Inter Milan, shares the platform with Khalida Popal, the Afghan women’s national team player now living in exile after the Taliban’s return to power stripped her compatriots of the right to play the game altogether.

The initiative, known as Football for the Goals, was launched in 2022 when UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed observed that football carries a powerful voice in the global community. That voice, the UN reasons, can be turned toward climate action, gender equality, inclusion, and human rights in ways that formal diplomacy rarely manages.

The timing is pointed. With the World Cup just days away, the ambassadors will have an audience measured in billions. World Football Day itself is observed on 25 May to mark the centenary of the first international football tournament featuring representation of all regions, held at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. The UN General Assembly formalized the date by resolution in May 2024, acknowledging the sport’s impact on peace and diplomacy.

Whether the appointment of football stars can move the needle on goals as vast as poverty eradication and gender justice remains an open question. The soft power of sport has a mixed record. But as vehicles for reaching audiences that never watch a UN press conference, Ancelotti, and Zanetti command a reach that no diplomat can match.

Sources: United Nations (24 May 2026