Ulises de la Cruz gives away 20 per cent of his salary to charity projects in his native Ecuador. He plays for Reading in the English Premiership, where, one newspaper calculated recently, the average player earns close to £700,000 a year. Sadly, Premiership footballers are more generally noted for losing count of their sports cars and indulging the extravagant whims of their dead-eyed Stepford wags. De la Cruz must feel like Mother Teresa at a loan sharks’ convention.