MEXICO CITY, Mexico, May 29 – Mexican footballer Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez, who plays for Britain’s Manchester United, was named a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) ambassador on Monday.

“When I heard that UNICEF wished to invite me to become a National Ambassador, immediately I thought: if it’s about doing something for the kids of my country, I am in,” Hernandez said at his designation ceremony.

The 23-year-old Manchester United Striker will join singer and actor Cesar Costa, appointed in 2004, and singer Julieta Venegas, appointed in 2009, in campaigning for children’s rights in Mexico on behalf of the UN body.

UNICEF said his work would particularly focus on child poverty and on children forced to leave school for work.

“Chicharito” is Spanish for “little pea.” Hernandez earned the nickname — written on his jersey — from his father, Javier Hernandez, a Mexican striker who played in the 1986 World Cup and was known as “Chicharo,” or “pea,” because of his green eyes.