Football legends John Terry, Roberto Carlos, Michael Owen, Paul Scholes, and Edgar Davids are in preparation for a never-before-seen face-off in Dubai later this year at the most-anticipated King’s Cup.
Legends football match scheduled for November 30 at Al Maktoum Stadium returns for its third edition.
After past showdowns featuring Manchester United Legends against Leicester City Legends in 2022, and a World XI last year, this year sees a new format.
Organizers have left nothing to chance in luring football’s biggest names to Dubai, with Terry captaining the Hedge & Sachs Royals XI and Dutch icon Davids leading Sheikh Khalifa Bin Saeed Bin Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s King’s XI.
The first event we did involved Manchester United, the second one, too, involved the Red Devils along with a World 11, so I realised we needed to mix it up this year,” Mohammed Mousa, event founder, told Gulf News.
I got involved with the Sheikh, and we said, ‘okay, let’s try and build a concept very different to what we have been doing all along’. We put both our A-listers together to form two teams that are absolutely outstanding in quality.
We’re trying to do what they’re doing in Saudi, but we’re doing it a little different. That’s how the King’s Cup was born.
Aside from the retired football legends, Mousa has pulled off quite a coup by securing the services of World Cup winner Paul Pogba for the match, creating a bespoke role for the current Juventus midfielder.
Pogba, along with Carlos, will don the exclusive ‘King’s Guard’ shirt, restricting each player to only 15 minutes per half for their respective teams.
While fans of both players might want to see more of Pogba, for example, the new shirt has its perks.
The role of ‘King’s Guard’ unleashes an additional player onto the pitch; thus, if Pogba and Carlos are to be deployed at the same time, both teams might contain as many as 24 players on the pitch at any given time, providing no one receives a red card.
Talking of red cards, the players who were the ‘King’s Guard’ would be exempt from yellow and red cards, and could never be flagged offside, adding a rather odd twist to the match.
The only way to get Paul on the field was the ‘King’s Guard’ because he doesn’t have a name or number and it’s a charity game, so he’s allowed,” Mousa said, confirming that ten percent of revenue derived from ticket sales will be donated to the Al Jalila Foundation.
“Paul is going to play this game and for me, it’s one of the biggest coups in that he hasn’t even played in Saudi yet.
“He’s also called a couple of his friends which, we can’t name just yet because they haven’t confirmed. But people like Zlatan, and Ribery look like they could be part of the event.
“We have already signed 22 players, and I can confirm Blais Matuidi, Emanuel Adebayor and Jay-Jay Okocha will be playing.
“We’ve got a really good set of legends from while back and ones that have just retired. We’re trying to give people a proper sense and value of football then to now.
“Where else would you see Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea players compete together other than Dubai?
