UNDP Goodwill Ambassadors Ronaldo and Zidane have confirmed that around 40 friends and colleagues will be joining them on the pitch for the third Match Against Poverty on Thursday, December 22 at the LTU Arena, Düsseldorf.
Among those in the 40-player line-up are teenage striker Freddy Adu (D.C. United); Kevin Kuranyi (Shalke 04); Tomas Rosicky (Borussia Dortmund); Phillip Cocu (PSV); Júlio Baptista (Real Madrid) and Rivaldo (Olympiakos). More top international names are expected to confirm in the coming days.
Other sporting celebrities taking part include European Ryder Cup hero Sérgio Garcia who will be swapping his golf clubs for a pair of football boots. Kemal Dervis, UNDP Administrator praised all those who have signed up to take part in the game.
– These talented athletes have inspired thousands of football fans like me to join our fight against poverty and we are lucky to have them on our team. Whatever the outcome of this game, we will all be winners, he said.
Ronaldo and Zidane will each captain an international side for this friendly aimed at mobilizing the public in the fight against poverty. It is also intended to focus attention on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted in 2000.
The goals were re-affirmed by the leaders of 191 countries at the UN Summit in New York last September. They seek to halve world poverty by 2015 by setting targets for rolling back hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women.
PSV Eindhoven manager Guus Hiddink and Rudi Völler, former head coach of the German national team and current Technical Director of Bayer Leverkusen will be coaching Ronaldos side. Mircea Lucescu of Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk and German world football champion Lothar Matthäus will coach Zidanes team. Italian Perluigi Colina is coming out of retirement to referee the game for a third consecutive year. More than 20 TV channels around the world are expected to broadcast the match live.
Proceeds from the previous games have gone to anti-poverty projects in Brazil, Comoros, Guinea Bissau, Haiti, Morocco, Namibia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. This year again, net profits of ticket sales will also finance projects selected by UNDP in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The full, confirmed player list is as follows:
Milan Baros (Aston Villa); Rui Costa (AC Milan); Bernd Schneider (Bayer Leverkusen); Dimitar Berbatov (Bayer Leverkusen); Gilberto Hertha (Berlin); Tomas Rosicky (Borussia Dortmund); Roman Weidenfeller (Borussia Dortmund); Micoud Werder (Bremen); Freddy Adu (D.C. United); Jorge Andrade (Deportivo); Diego Tristan (Deportivo); Sunday Oliseh (Genk); Daniel van Buyten (Hamburg); Khalid Boulahrouz (Hamburg); Raphael Van der Vaart (Hamburg); Thomas Brdaric (Hannover 96); Rivaldo (Olympiakos); Gomes (PSV); Jefferson Farfan (PSV); Phillip Cocu (PSV); Alex (PSV); Anatoliy Tymoschuk (Shakhtar Donetsk); Kevin Kuranyi (Schalke 04); Niko Kranjcar (Hajduk Split); Ricardo (Sporting); João Moutinho (Sporting); Sergio Conceição (Standard Liege); Fernando Meira (Stuttgart); Andreas Hinkel (Stuttgart); Edgar Davids (Tottenham); Santiago Canizares (Valencia); Miguel (Valencia); Patrick Kluivert (Valencia); Vicente (Valencia); Hugo Viana (Valencia); Júlio Baptista; (Real Madrid), Zetterberg (Anderlecht); Aboutarika (Al-Ahly); Vugdalic (AEL Limassol) Mahamadou Diarra (Lyon) and Lukas Podolski (Köln).
Ticket Purchase:
Ticket prices range from 15 Euros up to 40 Euros and can be purchased online:
www.dticket.de www.ticket-online.de
Reduced tickets (50 per cent off) are available for children up to 16 years of age.
Kilde: www.undp.org
