When Chelsea striker Didier Drogba walked from the pitch at the Emirates stadium after scoring two goals in a crucial 3-0 Premier League win over Arsenal at the end of November he made a point of showing the red laces on his boots to the television cameras.
The very next day this would all make sense as Drogba was sitting next to U2 front man Bono in front of the world's press in the heart of London to support Nike's new partnership with the Red charity to fight AIDS in his native Africa ahead of the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.
The 'Lace Up. Save Lives' campaign will see Nike selling a range of products, including $5 red laces and donating 100 per cent of the proceeds to programs cross Africa that provide both medication and education about AIDS and HIV.
The red laces will be worn by Nike's stable of footballers, including Australia's own Lucas Neill, Joe Cole, Andrey Arshavin and Marco Materazzi, who all attended the launch, as well as figures from others sports, such as NBA's LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Maria Sharapova.
"It is very important for me to be a part of this campaign, I want to help save lives," says the increasingly saintly Didier Drogba, who was born and spent his early years in the Ivory Coast. "It is so simple, it costs just 40 cents a day for the two pills that will keep people alive. This is more important than winning football games.
"The power of football is amazing because on the African continent there is a lot of stigma about AIDS particularly amongst young males, they just don't like to talk about it, so we can reach them by having footballers like Didier speaking out," Bono told Australian FourFourTwo.
The U2 lead singer founded his Red charity in 2006 to combat AIDS in Africa and has so far raised more than $140 million in partnership with such brands as Apple, Starbucks, GAP and Dell.
The money raised provides the antiretroviral therapy (those two pills costing just 40 cents a day), which are needed to keep someone with HIV in Africa alive, and so far nearly 3.5 million people have had testing and counseling due to Red's work.
"You have to not mind being a pain in the arse, to the missus and your band mates, you feel like a broken record, but you can't worry about looking foolish, because there is nothing foolish about saving lives," says Bono.
"It is poetic and moving that these footballers, people at the peak of physical fitness, are thinking about the vulnerable in society.
"Didier is a winner, Nike are all about winning. For so long we felt like losers talking about AIDS.
"In 50 years, 100 years, people will look back at the struggle against AIDS and see the next few years as when it got turned around.
As for football, Bono isn't much of a fan.
"I am a fair-weather friend to the Irish national team compared to my friend Larry Mullen, the drummer in U2. He is there whether they win or lose, but they are a team with a great spirit," he says. "And when it comes to the Premiership I am completely promiscuous."
Click here to see the video featuring Didier Drogba, Andrei Arshavin, Kobe Bryant and more...
(NIKE)RED laces cost $5. For stockist information, head to www.nikefootball.com/RED
Related Articles
FFA 'consulting with Nike' on Matildas kit backflip
After eight years, Wanderers swap Nike for Kappa
