‘We Played For The People Who Died’ – Says Pogba As Both Manchester Clubs Donate £1m To Attack Victims

Manchester City and Manchester United have both donated £1m to the Manchester attack emergency fund supporting the victims of the deadly suicide bomb attack in the city. 22 people died and 64 others are injured.

Manchester United’s executive chairman, Ed Woodward said: “It is right that we present a unified response to this tragedy.”

His Manchester City counterpart, chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak added that the clubs have been humbled by the strength and solidarity shown by the city.

“The hope of both our clubs is that our donation will go some small way to alleviate the daunting challenges faced by those directly affected and that our acting together will serve as a symbol to the world of the unbreakable strength of the spirit of Manchester.”

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Manchester United, who were playing two days after the attack for the Europa League trophy, triumphed and dedicated it to those that died.

Paul Pogba revealed this as he said it was an emotional evening for the players in Stockholm.

The game began with a moment of silence and applause, in memory of those killed at a concert at Manchester Arena, before goals from Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan clinched victory over Ajax.

“These things are terrible all over the world, in London and in Paris,” said Pogba, who was also playing at the Stade de France on the night of the November 2015 Paris terror attacks.

“We went out focused to win and we won for Manchester and the country. We played for England, we played for Manchester and we played for the people who died.”

United’s players wore black armbands, while chants of “Manchester” rang out from their fans at the Friends Arena in Sweden.

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Ander Herrera, man of the match on the night, echoed Pogba’s words saying:

“I want to dedicate the trophy to the victims. This is football, but what happened two days ago was horrible.”

“Yesterday morning we were devastated. We were really, really sad. It was really, really difficult to train. But the manager [Jose Mourinho] told us the only thing we could do was to win this for them and that’s what we’ve done.”

The Manchester attack emergency fund which was set up by the British Red Cross has been merged with a crowdfunding campaign set up by the Manchester Evening News. As of Thursday, more than £3m has been raised for the victims.