Argentina football star Javier Mascherano will be the special guest on Thursday’s @GA4Good Instagram Live At 9 PM Doha time (GMT +3). The current Estudiantes player will talk about the discipline and drive which has helped him win a host of major honours during his glittering football career.

After making his name in the English Premier League with West Ham United and Liverpool, Mascherano joined Spanish giants Barcelona, where he won five La Liga championships and two UEFA Champions League titles. He also won 147 caps for Argentina and helped his nation reach the 2014 FIFA World Cup™ final, where they lost 1-0 to Germany.

Mascherano is the latest star to appear on @GA4good since the programme launched its online series. Previous guests were Xavi Hernández, Samuel Eto’o, Cafu, Tim Cahill and others. All the star chats can be viewed on the programme’s Instagram page here.

Ahead of Mascherano’s appearance, former NAC Breda, Nottingham Forest and Netherlands striker, Pierre van Hooijdonk will be interviewed on @GA4Good at 4 PM Doha time on Wednesday. The WorldCoaches ambassador will talk about his motivations in football.

Generation Amazing Programmes Director, Nasser Al Khori, said: “Javier Mascherano is such a prominent figure in football who, in addition to being a dominant player for club and country, has done some tremendous and admirable charitable work with NGOs off the pitch as well. This kind of commitment to the community is a crucial part of what Generation Amazing does and I am sure that both our youth participants and general audiences can take so much from his incredible experience. We are thrilled about hosting him this week to explore these topics and more.”

Al Khori added: “It will also be interesting for youth to hear about the important work that Pierre van Hooijdonk has been doing as a WorldCoaches ambassador. Again, this is a cause close to Generation Amazing. He does a brilliant job of reaching youth through football coaching, so we are very excited about the line-up.”

Last week, former Ajax and Netherlands star Anouk Hoogendijk, who is also a WorldCoaches ambassador, spoke about gender equality, as well as her experiences in football, on @GA4good.

Hoogendijk detailed her dream and determination as a youngster to play for Ajax – despite the lack of a women’s team at the time.

She said: “Because of my dream, I trained so hard and in 2012 Ajax started a women’s team, so I was the first one who signed for Ajax!”

Generation Amazing will also continue its collaboration with the Qatar Children’s Museum on @GA4Good, providing young audiences with sports-themed arts and crafts sessions and live physical activities throughout the summer holidays.

A Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) social and legacy programme, Generation Amazing has reached 500,000 beneficiaries worldwide and aims to positively impact 1 million people via its football for development training sessions by 2022.

Follow @GA4Good on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, tag @GA4Good and use the #GALive hashtag for a chance to win exclusive signed merchandise from the football stars.