Maria
Mutola helps struggling Mozambican football club
AFP
10 July 2000 – Maputo, Mozambique - Top international middle-distance runner Maria Mutola is helping financially-crippled Mozambican football club Grupo Desportivo fight for survival.
Mutola has authorised the Maputo-based 1990 African Cup Winners Cup semi-finalists to sell one million colourful printed dresses carrying her portrait.
The association is not surprising as Mutola was a star soccer player at school in Maputo before turning to athletics, where she excells over the 800 and 1000 metre distances.
Desportivo has struggled since losing sponsorship from the Public Works Ministry and needed a final-round victory to avoid relegation from the national championship.