Too often, the good things that footballers do goes overlooked. It’s a click-bait driven world, and unfortunately, the good guys don’t often get the clicks. Manchester United defender Diogo Dalot seems to be one of those good guys (as his teammate Juan Mata, certainly), as he made a very classy gesture here.
The summer transfer window addition from FC Porto used a portion of his very first Manchester United paycheck to buy a minibus for the club where he began his playing career as a child. Dalot spent four years developing his game at Escola de Futebol O Fintas in Braga, Portugal- the player’s hometown.
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“Diogo had sent us a signed [Manchester United] jersey and we were talking to him on Skype when he told us to go outside of the building and we saw that there was a bus parked outside,” Luis Travessa Martins, Escola de Futebol O Fintas Founder told ESPN in an interview this week.
The minibus includes seats for nine people.
“It was new and adapted for the requirements we needed,” Martins continued.
“It was a very gratifying surprise. He had kept it a secret. He told us that with his first pay-check [at United], he wanted to give it us this as a gift. We are a small club, so every help is welcomed.”
Dalot has featured in eight Premier League games and played 484 minutes this season. He has contributed one assist and eight chances created.
Dalot, 19, left Escola de Futebol O Fintas at age nine to join the Porto youth system in 2008. He remained with the club until this past summer, when United purchased his contract for £19 million.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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