Albert Pujols, Manny Pacquiao and Giorgio Chiellini selected as Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Games

New York, N.Y. – The United Nations Games Organizing Committee has selected Mr. Albert Pujols, along with boxing champion Manny Pacquiao and 2020 UEFA Champion Giogio Chiellini as Goodwill Ambassadors for the United Nations Games.

This initiative, launched and agreed upon during the Organizing Committee meeting on 7 March 2025, is in line with United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/78/325, which recognizes the Games as a platform for promoting sports diplomacy, peace, and international cooperation.

Mr. Albert Pujols has been selected for his remarkable career as a world-class athlete and his longstanding commitment to social impact that makes him an outstanding candidate for this role.

Because of his dedication to philanthropy and Pujol’s efforts to uplift communities in the Dominican Republic and elsewhere, he embodies the values that the United Nations Games seek to promote; unity, inclusiveness, and the power of sports to bring people together beyond borders. Mr. Pujols was introduced to the audience by his fellow Dominican, Mr. Graciano Gaillard, Member of the Organizing Committee of the Games.

As a Goodwill United Nations Games Ambassador, Mr. Pujols will have the opportunity to support and advocate for the Games, based on UN values; to inspire greater participation, promote education, and help advance the mission of using sports as a tool for peace and sustainable development.

Both Mr. Pacquiao and Chiellini sent previously recorded messages to the audience, thanking the audience and the Organizing Committee for being selected, as they accepted their new roles as Goodwill Ambassadors.

Mr. Pujols was among several delegates, diplomats and Ambassadors, Permanent Representatives to the United Nations, including the Co-Chair of the Group of Friends of Sport for Sustainable Development, at the UN, H.E. Ms. Alya Ahmed Saif Al-Thani, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Qatar to the United Nations, and Ms. Rosemarie McClean, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General, for the UN Pension Fund.

The Opening Ceremony took place in Conference Room 4 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Tuesday April 2, 2025.