Olmo donates 2% of his salary to support families in Vukovar

Andy Bara, the agent of Spanish player Dani Olmo, revealed that the FC Barcelona player has been donating 2% of his gross annual salary for years to support families and projects in the Croatian city of Vukovar, in appreciation of the country where he lived during his time playing with GNK Dinamo Zagreb.

Bara stated in remarks on the "Inkubator" podcast: "Since leaving GNK Dinamo Zagreb, he has been donating 2% of his total annual salary to Vukovar. These are significant amounts because he earns a large salary, and this has been ongoing since his time at RB Leipzig, and now with FC Barcelona. He does not speak about it publicly, but I want to reveal it because it deserves praise."

Dani Olmo had spent five years in Croatia between 2014 and 2019, before moving to Leipzig, and later joining FC Barcelona. The player himself confirmed the accuracy of what his agent revealed, explaining during a press conference in Croatian: "When I left, I felt that I owed something to Croatia, and I wanted to give something back, so we decided to make these donations to the families of Vukovar. I felt that I owed them, and I thought this was the best idea." His words received applause from Croatian journalists.

Vukovar is considered one of the most affected cities during the Balkan War, having endured a siege that lasted 87 days between August and November 1991, carried out by the Yugoslav People's Army and Serbian paramilitary forces.

Dani Olmo has chosen to make his donations through the "Common Goal" foundation, an organization founded by German Jürgen Griesbeck in 2017 in collaboration with Spanish Juan Mata, which aims to encourage football players to allocate a portion of their salaries to support social causes and projects.

Juan Mata was one of the main supporters of the initiative, committing to donate 1% of his salary, before encouraging several of his teammates to participate, including Giorgio Chiellini, Mats Hummels, Megan Rapinoe, and Kasper Schmeichel, as well as coach Julian Nagelsmann. Dani Olmo also joined the list of participating athletes, alongside many players who preferred not to disclose their contributions.

The organization is currently working with over 200 entities in 117 countries, supporting around 11 million people with the participation of more than 200 athletes, according to data published on its official website.