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Football

19th Mar 2016

One of football’s good guys Emile Heskey helped save Leicester from administration with unbeleivable generosity

Conan Doherty

Fair play.

Before anyone says it, how much of your wage would you donate to your old employers?

Any time a footballer offers a kind gesture, they’re still criticised because they’re millionaires. Just because they earn more money, there’s no onus on them to part with it. And when they do it just to help out or give back, they should be applauded.

It turns out Emile Heskey donated £100,000 to his old club Leicester City long before this unprecedented run to the summit of English football began.

The former Liverpool striker couldn’t sit by idly and watch as his boyhood team went into administration in 2002/03. So he put his money where his mouth is and helped dig them out with a sizable six-figure donation.

Clint Hill of Tranmere Rovers challenges Emile Heskey of Leicester City

“The club was going down a road nobody wanted to see. It was something I had to do. I wasn’t looking for anything from it,” he revealed to the Daily Star.

“If it wasn’t for this club, would I be what I am or have done what I have achieved? Everything that happened for me is down to me starting here as a little kid.

“I just felt it was something I had to do and, in all fairness, I thought a few more people would do it as well. But maybe they just didn’t have the same deep feeling as me.

“I just gave it unconditionally because of my love for the club. They were in a bad way. It was desperate. It was sad to see the club I played for and went to cup finals with in such a terrible state.

“I was a ball boy at Filbert Street and I went to playing at the old Wembley with my parents watching. Everything about what happened for me was all down to starting here.”

What a fantastic guy.

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