One player said it was “hard to explain the happiness” he felt when his transfer announcement led to a young girl being found.
A campaign started by Roma in 2019 in which they use their transfer announcement videos to highlight missing children across the globe has helped find 12 missing children since it began.
The most recent example was earlier in August. Striker Eldor Shomurodov signed for Roma from Genoa on August 24, and his transfer announcement video included a picture of a missing Polish girl. She was found just days later.
Speaking about the initiative, Shomurodov said: “It is difficult to explain the happiness of having in some way contributed to the finding of one of these children and consequently to the relief of her family.
“I’m proud to be part of a club that uses the popularity of football in this way.”
Great news 🤩
A Polish child featured in our video to announce the signing of Eldor Shomurodov has been found safe and well! ♥️ #ASRoma pic.twitter.com/6GVRRvw3G8
— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) August 26, 2021
It was two years ago that Roma decided to use their social media presence for good, including pictures of missing children in their transfer videos in order to raise awareness and increase the chances of finding them.
According to the Guardian, the club has partnered with a number of missing persons charities across the world and children from the UK, Italy, Greece, Belgium, Kenya and now Poland have been found after appearing in transfer videos published by the club.
Roma’s chief marketing officer, Max Van Den Doel, said: “It is a campaign that all of us here at AS Roma are passionate about supporting and the club is humbled to have contributed to the finding of 12 children so far.
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“Obviously the true credit goes to all the associations with whom we collaborate, and who fill our hearts with joy whenever they inform us another child has been found.”
Caroline Humer from the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children said: “The campaign has given visibility to over 100 children who are vulnerable to exploitation and in many cases have been forgotten by society.
“Every day children go missing around the world and every person can help bring them home by looking at the images to see if they recognise anyone.”
