Real Madrid to tour Australia for July 2015 tournament.
Nice celebration, Crispy.
Real Madrid are coming to Melbourne as part of a feast of international football next July.
The series of friendlies, part of the International Champions Cup, will take place at the MCG on July 18-24.
The reigning European champions and FIFA Club of the 20th Century will be joined by an English Premier League team and Italian Serie A side.
Organisers said the other teams, rumoured to be Manchester City and Inter Milan, would be revealed in the next few weeks.
The long-rumoured event was confirmed on Monday morning by the Victorian sports minister Damien Drum.
Drum said he expected the three fixtures would generate around $50m to the local economy.
He thanked AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan, which has rights to the MCG during the winter, for scheduling their season around the tournament.
“It has taken some negotiations but the goodwill in which these negotiations have taken place deserves credit,” he said.
The three teams will play in a round-robin tournament, which has been staged predominantly in North America for the last two years.
Ronaldo is the current holder of the FIFA Ballon d’Or handed out annually to the world’s best player.
“I got to play in Spain for six years and experience how big Real Madrid were,” said former Socceroo John Aloisi, who played in the Primera Liga for Osasuna and Alaves.
“They buy the biggest players in the world and make it work. Watching them live is another experience. I can’t wait.”
Also in Madrid’s squad is Colombia’s James Rodriguez, who was voted the best player at this year’s World Cup, France striker Karim Benzema, Wales winger Gareth Bale and Spain stars Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos.
Aloisi said he expected soccer to enjoy a year in the limelight, with the matches coming after Australia hosts the Asian Cup in January.
The matches also add to a bumper 2015 for the MCG - which is also hosting the Cricket World Cup final and a State of Origin match on top of the AFL grand final.
This has been cross-posted to ontd_football.
SOURCE
European clubs finally acknowledging the existence of Asia-Pacific fans. Also, the matches will be on at a decent time so I won't be losing sleep, yay!
BTW, this was the Guardian's caption for the above photo:
Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates scoring against Eibar on Saturday 22 November 2015.