USWNT Stars Alex Morgan & Megan Rapinoe Join Mata & Hummels in Giving 1% of Their Salary to Charity

US Women's National Team (USWNT) stars and World Cup winners Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe have become the latest players to make the 1% pledge to the growing Common Goal project, which strives to impact change at community level around the world through football.

Manchester United favourite Juan Mata got the ball rolling back in early August when he was the first star to sign up, while Bayern Munich defender Mats Hummels joined a few weeks later.

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The tally of World Cup winners behind Common Goal (common-goal.org) - where footballers promise to give 1% of their earnings to help those less fortunate - is now four-strong after Morgan and Rapinoe, both victorious with the USA in 2015, have been added to the squad.

The pair are the first representatives from the women's game, and Rapinoe felt it was extremely important for female players to also get behind Common Goal.

"Common Goal is intended as an inclusive initiative, and myself and Alex felt it was important that women's football were represented from the outset," Seattle Reign star Rapinoe explained.

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"We're really looking forward to building the movement with Juan and Mats from here-sky's the limit at this stage."

Morgan, who plays her club football for Orlando Pride after a recent short-term spell in Europe at Lyon, added, "As the global profile of women's football continues to grow, players like myself and Megan will have an increasing number of opportunities to use our status for good

"I'm thrilled to join Common Goal at this early stage and hope we can inspire many others to become part of the movement."

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Mata and Hummels are both excited to have two more high profile players on board.

"It takes courage to stand up and bring the movement to US soil for the first time. Fortunately, courage is something both Megan and Alex have in spades," Mata commented.

"In Europe, we've just experienced a record-breaking transfer window," Hummels said.

"I think some fans are starting to feel alienated from the game in light of these kinds of developments. But as more players join Common Goal, we hope to show the world that football still has its heart in the right place."

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Common Goal is the work of streetworldfootball, an NGO that has helped develop and support a global network of 120 local football charities over the last 15 years - working to positively affect the lives of some 2.3m disadvantaged young people at community level in as many as 80 countries worldwide, from India, to Colombia, to Germany, the United States and many more.

Ultimately, the long-term vision of Common Goal is to unlock 1% of the entire football industry's enormous revenue - conservatively believed to be worth around $30bn per year - to help fund grassroots charities that use football to strengthen communities.

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"Over the past six weeks, we've watched Common Goal evolve from an idea on paper to a budding movement that's already seen four World Cup winners - from across the US and Europe - come together behind a shared commitment to give back," said streetfootballworld CEO Jürgen Griesbeck.

"But if we're really going to transform the football industry, we can't stop here. We need more of football's thought leaders to rally behind our vision of the game. The question is: who's next?"

Learn more at www.streetfootballworld.org.