Together they will jointly lead Common Goal’s global governing body, bringing their experience, vision, and shared commitment to strengthening Common Goal as the Home of Football for Good.
Juan Mata and Sharon Thorne have been appointed Co-Chairs of Common Goal’s Board of Directors, bringing together two people who have spent their careers in very different worlds but share a belief in what can happen when people come together around a common purpose.
For Juan, a 2010 FIFA World Cup Champion from Spain, the appointment marks a new chapter in a relationship with Common Goal that stretches back nearly a decade.
In 2017, while playing at Manchester United, he became the first footballer to publicly pledge 1% of his salary to football for good, helping launch what would become the Common Goal movement. Since then, he has remained one of its strongest advocates — bringing more people from across football into the movement and continuing to challenge the game to think differently about the role it can play in society.
“When I made my 1% pledge, it came from a belief that football could do more and that all of us within the game had a role to play. That belief has only become stronger over the years. By becoming Co-Chair, I want to send a strong message to everyone: the mission is more urgent than ever, and there is no time to wait to take action.”
— Juan Mata, Co-Chair, Common Goal
This step follows from years of seeing first hand how football can change lives in some of the most vulnerable communities on the planet.
“The more I’ve seen of the football for good community, the more I’ve realised that the football industry represents only a small part of what this game really is. Away from the spotlight, you see football built around some of its most fundamental values — teamwork, belonging, trust, looking out for each other. And you start to realise that football can be more than a reflection of society. At its best, it can show us something about the kind of society we need to build together,” said Juan.
Alongside him, Sharon Thorne brings decades of global leadership experience across business, governance, sustainability and purpose-driven transformation. The former Global Chair of Deloitte and current Senior Independent Director of Rio Tinto, she has worked across countries, sectors, and cultures, with a particular focus on leadership, strategy, governance, accountability, and building organisations capable of turning ambition into action. She has long championed collaboration, equality and inclusive growth and is deeply committed to helping organisations deliver positive, systemic change.
What attracted her to Common Goal was not only the scale of that ambition, but the community of people behind it.
“What drew me to Common Goal is the combination of a hugely ambitious idea and an extraordinary community of people already making it real. I’m passionate about the power of collaboration to drive transformative change – and there is enormous potential in bringing these diverse perspectives and experiences together and asking: how do we help this go further?”
— Sharon Thorne, Co-Chair, Common Goal
For Sharon, joining Juan as Co-Chair is also an opportunity to strengthen the systems of football for good that enable investment, responsible growth, and impact measurement, exploring how Common Goal can sit at the intersection between football, business, philanthropy, communities, and social impact.
“The challenges we are trying to address cannot be solved by one sector alone. Football has an extraordinary ability to bring people together, and its potential becomes even greater when we view it not only as an industry, but as a global vehicle for delivering equality, opportunity, and positive change. I want to help Common Goal build those bridges and create the conditions for a thriving football for good sector,” said Sharon.
For CEO Mary Connor, it is the combination of skillsets and vision that makes their shared leadership particularly powerful.
“As CEO, your relationship to the Board Chair(s) is an essential part of your ability to lead, particularly through challenging conditions. Getting to work with Juan and Sharon through the founder transition process, really showed that they don’t just believe in what Common Goal is trying to achieve, they are actively invested in getting us there. Most importantly, we want to make sure that Common Goal’s governing structures and leadership reflect the same principles and values that we promote in the sector: collaboration, shared leadership, gender equality. This Co-Chairship takes a meaningful step in that direction.” — Mary Connor, CEO, Common Goal
They are joined on the global Board by Dr. Christopher Busey, Isabella Echeverri, Lara Metcalf, Travis Dezendorfand Dr. Vladimir Borkovic, bringing further perspectives from across community, football, social impact, business and organisational leadership.
Their appointment comes one year after Common Goal announced the beginning of a leadership transition following almost three decades under the leadership of its founders. Earlier this year, Mary Connor became CEO and George Springborg Chief Community Officer, opening a new chapter with community at the center.
“After more than 20 years with Common Goal, I’ve seen how much we have evolved — and how important it is that we keep evolving. This is one of those moments. As we build the organisation we need for the future, our community has to remain our foundation: bringing us closer to the people doing this work every day, allowing their experience to shape us, and making us stronger in what we can achieve together.” — George Springborg, Chief Community Officer, Common Goal
Common Goal’s legal entities in the United States and Germany have also restructured under a single global governing Board. The Board held its first in-person meeting following the merger in Boston, USA on 11 September, which included a community roundtable with Common Goal member organizations Boston SCORES, Project GOAL, Reclaim Childhood, Soccer Unity Project, and Soccer Without Borders (SWB) and a site visit to a football for good session in East Boston with SWB.
Together, these changes are about making Common Goal stronger for the work ahead — closer to its community, more global in how it thinks and works, and better positioned to mobilise more of football around social change.
Following a FIFA World Cup 2026 that created new opportunities to connect football’s biggest stage with community impact, Common Goal is already looking towards the FIFA Women’s World Cup Brazil 2027 and the opportunity to go further.
