Augsburg defender Mads Pedersen says he hopes Ajax Amsterdam star Mohammed Kudus inspires Right to Dream players to believe in their dreams to help make them batter footballers in the future.
Mohammed Kudus, a product of the Right to Dream Academy moved to Danish club FC Nordsjaelland where he excelled greatly before making a deserving move to Dutch powerhouse Ajax Amasterdam.
Mads Pedersen is a member of Common Goal, the movement launched with the support of Manchester United’s Juan Mata that encourages players to pledge at least one per cent of their salary to help fund charities around the world.
This mantra was instilled in Pedersen, 25, during his time at Nordsjaelland, the Danish club with a unique perspective. Club owner Tom Vernon is also the founder of the Right to Dream academy in Ghana and has fostered strong ties between the two.
According to Pedersen, his visit to Ghana has left a lasting impression for him.
“It was a little bit overwhelming. I stayed in the academy for four days with the kids there. Then I went to Accra. There were houses built from garbage. There was such a gap between rich and poor. There were eight people living in a space the size of my bedroom,” says Pedersen who has his own charitable initiative supplying second-hand clothing to Ghana.
“They were still being optimistic but that hit me. I had a nice childhood growing up in Denmark. We need to be a lot more grateful for what we have. But these guys grab the opportunity when it comes. It is amazing. They work 10 times as hard as most people do.”
Their inspiration is Mohammed Kudus, a former Right to Dream academy graduate who moved to Nordsjaelland and is now shining at Ajax.
“He has come all that way,” says Pedersen of his old team-mate. “I hope he inspires them to believe in their dreams.” he told Sky Sports.
