Meet young Arsenal goalkeeper Alexei Rojas making waves behind the scenes at the club

Alexei Rojas has been inspiring alteration down the scenes astatine Arsenal and successful the wider shot satellite done his sustainability campaigning, contempt lone being 19 years old

For idiosyncratic truthful young, Alexei Rojas has already achieved a lot.

The 19-year-old goalkeeper lone signed his archetypal nonrecreational declaration with Arsenal successful July, and yet he’s already made immense strides astatine the club. And portion helium is focused connected breaking into Mikel Arteta’s archetypal squad 1 day, helium besides has different goals disconnected the pitch.

He is passionate astir sustainability and hasn’t been acrophobic to usage his level to talk up astir what helium believes in. That thrust began erstwhile helium was conscionable 10 years old, aft being educated connected the taxable by his mum, who works arsenic hazard manager for a institution that builds offshore upwind farms. For the past 9 years, Rojas has been doing everything successful his powerfulness to marque a difference.

“Ever since I’ve been astatine Arsenal I’ve had the accidental to talk up astir it and thrust alteration wrong the club,” helium tells Mirror Football. “Certain things person changed, chiefly astir recycling bins, eliminating single-use plastics and much operational things astir vigor usage – wherever we’re getting our vigor from and the benignant of airy bulbs astatine Hale End, wherever the academy is.

“More precocious I’ve been speaking up astir the nexus betwixt athletics and sustainability and however the 2 spell hand-in-hand, not lone due to the fact that athletics has specified a large antagonistic interaction due to the fact that of travel, logistics, operations and fans, but besides due to the fact that shot has specified a large assemblage worldwide and has specified a large interaction connected radical and their day-to-day lives. If we tin propulsion sustainability messages and get radical progressive done athletics past I deliberation we tin marque existent corporate change.”

Rojas is an ambassador for charitable question Common Goal and besides works with non-profit Football for Future. He has enjoyed giving speeches to youngsters and is helping to make an acquisition sustainability programme for Premier League academies.

Earlier this week, Common Goal and Football for Future announced the motorboat of the Fields of Change handbook, a grooming assets for grassroots sporting organisations looking to integrate sustainability into their work. Based connected a year-long collaboration betwixt sports organisations astir the world and supported by Adidas, it offers applicable guidance connected making environmentally-minded decisions.

Rojas was progressive successful its instauration and believes it’s a bully illustration of the kinds of initiatives that tin truly marque a difference: a bottom-up, grassroots strategy which besides gets top-down support. “The astir important happening is that the 2 things link and 1 drives the other,” helium explains.

“When you person much bottom-up approaches, large organisations tin spot that is what radical are looking for, truthful they privation to get progressive and backmost it. It’s large that the handbook has travel astir done some approaches – they’re some indispensable to marque existent change. You can’t bash 1 without the other. With bottom-up approaches, you tin get a batch of radical doing things successful a precise tiny capableness and the astir important happening is that it’s a large corporate movement.”

Arsenal person been supportive of Rojas’ passions and helium isn’t acrophobic of the imaginable disapproval that could travel his way. PFA sustainability champion David Wheeler told Mirror Football that some players are disquieted astir speaking up owed to fears of being labelled hypocrites owed to their lifestyle.

“The mode I look astatine it is that you can’t beryllium 100 per cent perfect,” Rojas explains. “There’s ever going to beryllium immoderate interaction and, astatine the extremity of the day, shot is inactive a show manufacture wherever the fig 1 extremity is to win, not to beryllium arsenic sustainable arsenic we tin be.

“But wrong that, what matters is that shot organisations are capable to inactive power what they tin control, successful presumption of being capable to power fans, not producing loads of waste, oregon utilizing tons of integrative and being capable to propulsion affirmative sustainability messages. It’s important to recognize that it’s not cleanable but thing tin be. You bash what you can, due to the fact that it’s ever amended to bash thing alternatively of nothing.”

He is inactive astatine the commencement of his shot career, having not yet made his first-team debut for Arsenal, but Rojas is already an experienced nonrecreational successful presumption of sustainability – and determination is undoubtedly plentifulness much to come.

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