“An extraordinary tour de force.” These are the words used by Julien Meimon, president and founder of Linkee, to designate the exceptional solidarity canteen organized in partnership with PSG, this Saturday, November 16 at the Parc des Princes. The event, which brought together 2,500 precarious students, the largest distribution of its kind in France, is part of the larger action of the capital’s club foundation, “PSG for communities”, in favor of young people in particular.
Created in 2000, the PSG Foundation has always focused on children and young people who are disadvantaged, sick or in difficulty. A year-round process in which the club is keen to involve its athletes, such as footballers Gonçalo Ramos and Griedge Mbock, handball player Luc Steins and judoka Alexis Mathieu, present on November 16 at the Park to lend a helping hand. “Our area of concern with PSG communities is young people, only young people,” explains Fabien Allègre, who manages the PSG foundation. And we are lucky to have players, whatever the discipline, who are always very sensitive to the causes we defend. »
👏 @PSG_Communities begins this new season with a renewed ambition: to provide concrete support to young people in difficulty, families and communities through solidarity initiatives. ⤵️❤️💙
— Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_inside) October 2, 2024
Multiple causes: at the beginning of October, the capital club presented its objectives for the season, with four major measures. The first being the solidarity canteen, which will make its return in March and must help a total of 8,000 precarious students this season, almost double the total reached since its creation in three years.
“Come on girls! », a program created in 2013, introduces young girls aged 11 to 16, from disadvantaged neighborhoods in the Paris region, “to the benefits and practice of sport”. This season it concerns 75 young girls from Poissy, Colombes, Vitry-sur-Seine. The “Legend Eleven” system trains football teams for autistic and neurotypical children. The red and blue school provides academic support to children aged 7 to 11 and will open, this season, a new structure at Necker Hospital, “thus reinforcing (the club’s) commitment to sick children”. Finally, since 2022, PSG has allowed 1,000 children from the Cox’s Bazar refugee camp, in Bangladesh, to have access to sports.
In total, the PSG Foundation organizes nearly 450 operations each year. It estimates the number of children and young people helped, supported or accompanied since its creation in 2000 at 300,000. Each year, PSG organizes its very exclusive Foundation Gala which allows it to raise funds for its numerous actions.