Footballer Marcus Rashford has thanked the artist who painted the powerful mural of him in Withington.
The black and white mural is painted on the wall of the Coffee House Café on Copson Street, an area close to where the footballer lived with his family before moving to Wythenshawe.
On Tuesday evening (November 10), the Manchester United star tweeted a photo of the mural thanking street artist Akse for the work.
“Ok I usually get embarrassed sharing these things because this journey was never really about me,” Rashford tweeted.
“But I know this took a lot of time and effort @Akse_P19 and I wanted to say thank you ♥”
Street artist Akse is well-known for creating a number of powerful murals across the city and has previously featured Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, singer Denise Johnson and George Floyd in his work.
Based on a photograph by Daniel Cheetham, the mural was created in collaboration with Withington Walls, a community project creating public art works.
The project is run by donations and volunteers and aims to bring life to Withington Village through colourful street art and has previously created work featuring Peter Saville and Uma Thurman.
Organisers behind the project said last week that the mural was created to recognise the work the football star has done for disadvantaged families.
"It doesn't need much explanation as to why we wanted to pay homage to Marcus Rashford given what an inspirational young man he is," Ed Wellard, organiser at Withington Walls, said.
"The compassion and humility and decency and determination and wisdom he has shown fighting for disadvantaged children is really special.
"Withington and Manchester are rightly proud of one of their own."
Following a much-publicised campaign by Rashford, the government announced last week it would spend more than £400m to support disadvantaged families in England as part of a winter grant scheme.
The footballer’s petition to extend free meals into the school holidays gathered more than one million signatures.
