Sir Alex Ferguson makes £2m child food poverty pledge

Former Aberdeen and Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has pledged up to £2m towards a child-food charity.

Sir Alex, who also managed Scotland at the 1986 World Cup, praised the efforts of Man Utd forward Marcus Rashford as the pair team up to tackle the issue.

Rashford was awarded an MBE for his recent campaigning – which saw the Government twice make a U-turn on providing free school meals during holidays.

Now the 23-year-old has revealed that Ferguson will make the pledge towards the FareShare charity for which Rashford is an ambassador.

An appeal in the Times is aiming to raise funds and the England star revealed the legendary manager, alongside Sir Michael Moritz, will match donations up to the aforementioned sum and described the news as “incredible”.

Ferguson grew up in Glasgow in tough conditions and believes Rashford has done a great job in highlighting the plight facing families across Britain.

The 78-year-old told the Times: “You have to be shocked at the number of people who are in need of food,”.

“Marcus has opened the eyes of everyone in Britain. The work he’s done has been fantastic and we’re all so proud of him because of that.

“What Marcus has done is he’s led the way – people will say, ‘That boy he’s only 23 years of age’. People who are in their later ages…should be saying, ‘I can do something’.”

The pair never worked together with Rashford making his United debut as an 18-year-old three years after the long-serving boss retired.

But he has now left a mark on the Scot – a winner of 13 Premier League titles and two European Cups during his 25-year reign at the English giants – off the field.

Now-retired Ferguson, who also won league titles and the European Cup Winners Cup with Aberdeen, said: “He should be giving me some advice because what he’s doing at 23 is fantastic for a young person,

“I’ve no need to tell Marcus because I think there’s humility in the way he lives his life. His feet are on the ground.

“These are great qualities to carry you through life. Football hasn’t changed him. There is a danger in football that it can change people, money can change people, stardom can change people.

“Getting a celebrity position in life can sometimes be a problem because not everyone can carry success well. And at the moment Marcus is doing that very, very well.”