When it comes to the off pitch activities of premiership footballers, we're more used to seeing their pictures in the tabloids for entitled behaviour funded by excessive salaries.
While many young boys and girls who dream of kicking a ball for a living might idolise their skills, there is often little in their personal behaviour that would hold them up as role models.
Of course with every rule comes the exception, there are many global sporting stars, often originally from very humble backgrounds, who have used their fame and wealth for good.
Having a platform such as that of an international soccer star is invaluable for those who feel strongly about a cause, as shown this week by Manchester United star and England player Marcus Rashford.
He's now being jokingly referred to as the 'leader of the opposition' after his powerful testimony of growing up in a very loving, but very impoverished household, made him want to help children in a similar position.
In an emotional open letter to MPs posted on Monday, Rashford drew on his own experience of relying on free school meals and food banks growing up.
"I encourage you to hear the children’s pleas and find your humanity. Please reconsider your decision to cancel the food voucher scheme over the summer holidays", he said.
He spoke lovingly of his mother, a single parent who worked full-time, earning minimum wage to make sure her children always had an evening meal on the table.
"But it was not enough. The system was not built for families like mine to succeed, regardless of how hard my mum worked".
It's a story that will be familiar to many of the working poor.
Those who slate families on social welfare would have you believe they are lazy, waiting on handouts. But the reality is working parents in low paid, insecure employment struggle to keep the lights on, often going hungry to feed their children first.
His campaign forced Boris Johnson, a man who has zero personal experience of poverty, into a u-turn on providing free school meals during the summer holidays.
Around 1.3 million children in England will get food vouchers during the holidays, following a campaign by the footballer.
At just 22-years-old he has changed government policy but seemingly devoid of ego responded in a modest way saying: "Look at what we can do when we come together."
Provision for a similar scheme was already arranged to continue through the summer in Scotland and Wales.
As I write this there are moves in the Northern Ireland executive to ensure children from economically unstable backgrounds don't go hungry during the holidays.
While unemployment has rocketed under the Covid lockdown, this is not just a pandemic problem.
It is one that teachers and those working in the many charities, churches and agencies will tell you is a constant problem.
This didn't just become an issue because a celebrity sports star spoke out, he spoke out because it is an issue.
Free school meals are an important part of many children's development, concentrating on an empty stomach, worrying about younger brothers and sisters and seeing distressed parents feel the mental strain of poverty, plays a big role in educational underachievement.
I was a free school meals child, when I was in primary school in west Belfast during the 70s so was almost everyone else.
It wasn't an issue that I ever thought about or had to think about.
When I went to grammar school that changed and I still remember how that felt.
Now most schools have a universal lunch swipe card, and therefore no child is made to feel the stigma of being a free school meals kid.
But back then the tickets were different colours, I was the only person in my form with a different coloured ticket.
It took my 11-year-old self about a week to pick up on this difference and work out why it brought about sniggers from others.
And so I just stopped using it, just stopped eating during the day, I would sometimes sit in a locked toilet cubicle for the duration of my lunch break.
Not one adult ever thought to ask why.
I write this knowing I've never told my mother this, I couldn't have at the time, I wouldn't have been able to find the words.
Like Marcus Rashford's mum she was also hard working and proud that her children had achieved academically.
I would have hoped that this experience was a relic of the past, but speaking to teachers I know it isn't and that's why the footballer's testimony was so powerful.
For him this wasn't a fashionable cause it was his lived experience and not just his, thousands of others like him.
