The Guardian Footballer of the Year Marcus Rashford: 'My mum is everything'

The Manchester United forward reflects on an extraordinary year where he improved the lives of millions of people – all, he says, inspired by his mother Mel


The Guardian Footballer of the Year is an award given to a player who has done something remarkable, whether by overcoming adversity, helping others or setting a sporting example by acting with exceptional honesty.

Marcus Rashford is mulling over a quite extraordinary 2020 in which his words and deeds have made him the only choice to be named as the Guardian’s Footballer of the Year. The Manchester United and England forward has excelled on the pitch, as usual, but the truth is that the day job no longer defines him. How can it do so when he has done more than anyone to look after the poorest and most vulnerable children in the United Kingdom?

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Marcus Rashford MBE is the Guardian’s Footballer of the Year for 2020. Rashford is honoured for forcing the issue of child hunger in the UK on to the national stage; persuading ministers to extend free school meals into the summer holidays; raising money to enable FareShare, the food charity he works with, to distribute nearly 10 million meals for children and families in need; launching the Child Food Poverty Taskforce; and launching a book club to support children’s reading. He has made his own experience, living in a home where food was scarce, count. And he has transformed perceptions of what role models in football can achieve.

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