Kolo Touré Throws Christmas Party for Orphans, is the Best

Liverpool mark the holiday season every year by making a spirit-lifting visit to Alder Hey Children's Hospital. The kids are delighted, players wear Santa hats and deliver gifts, and a good time is had by all.  But Kolo Touré has gone beyond that this year with his own charitable activities, choosing to throw a Christmas party for the orphanage he supports back home in Côte d'Ivoire.

"With Christmas coming I've tried to organise a Christmas party for them," said Touré, himself a devout Muslim. "There are different children from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. The Muslim religion teaches us to be nice people and to try to help people, Christian or Muslim it doesn't matter. The most important thing is to be nice with everyone you can and then everyone will respect you. It is a good thing for me to just try to help all those kids."

"I am lucky that I am able to help them. Every month I send money to ensure they can have a good life and I will try to do that as long as I can provide. We are not perfect but if you can still help people you help them and I will always help people who are honest and those kids have done nothing. I think of them as my kids and to provide for them every month is nothing. I love to see them happy, that is most important."

At a time of year when the commercialization of various religious holidays can eclipse the sentiment attached to those celebrations, it's nice a nice reminder to help those in need when and where you're able to. Footballers are often painted as being money obsessed mercenaries, but every once in a while a player steps up and demonstrates that there are fair few of them out there who are a cut above the rest.