Anti Bullying Week: Ruben Dias on why it matters

Kim: He might be best known for his leadership skills in Manchester City’s backline, but on this occasion Rúben Dias has led from the front – as he delivered a speech from the House of Lords as part of Anti-Bullying Week to highlight the importance of treating people with kindness.

Rúben: At the end you can have all the power in the world, but if you don’t know how to use it you’re not as powerful as you could be. It’s a little bit in that sense that I found it was, especially with the word respect that means a lot to me. I found that it would be useful in many ways for me to show up and do my bit.

Kim: How does it make you feel when you maybe see team mates who are suffering at the hands of online abuse? What does that evoke in terms of feelings?

Rúben: I guess that one’s a big one today, online abuse. It’s a difficult one to stop. It’s much to do with who you’ve got at home, your ability to have that tunnel focus of what is important, where you go and what’s your purpose and who’s around you and who matters. And be able to switch off when you have to.

Kim: Rúben has a massive following and so many young people look up to him, if other footballers were to follow suit what would that mean?

Part of our message for Anti-Bullying Week this year is that actually adults need to act as role models to children and we can’t expect children to act better than adults act. So we hope through this event and through Rúben’s involvement we can get that message out to adults that we’ve got to be what we want to see in children.

Kim: After the Man City star delivered his speech in parliament, I caught up with some of the young ambassadors who were also part of the event. Talk to me about what today’s been like for you.

Young ambassador 1: It’s been an amazing experience, just meeting people that I’ve looked up to for so long, like Rúben Dias of course, amazing footballer. It was a great experience, loved coming here, speaking and spreading the message that we’re trying to get out that.

Kim: Were you nervous at all? Because as you said you’ve got really well-known people, how was that?

Young ambassador 1: Of course, very nerve-racking. I had to go up there, say what I needed to say, and make sure the message we are trying to put out reaches as many people as it can.

Young ambassador 2: So, Anti-Bullying Week is important because it’s a dedicated time for people to be aware about bullying.

Kim: You’ve been talking today in the House of Lords, what on Earth is that like?

Young ambassador 3: Overwhelming. Pretty nerve-racking because I got to meet some incredible people, but overall a really good experience.

Young ambassador 4: I loved it so much and I’m really really happy. It was really good.