Italian striker Fabrizio Ravanelli has confirmed he will be part of the star-studded FIFA All-Star team to take on the best Asian players in the Reunification Cup at the Hong Kong Stadium.
Ravanelli joins a power-packed frontline which includes England's Player of the Year Alan Shearer, 1996 World Footballer of the Year George Weah, and French star Jean-Pierre Papin.
Other players who have confirmed their participation on July 3 are Brazilian stars Leonardo and Edmundo, Sampdoria's Frenchman Christian Karembeu, German goalkeeper Andreas Kopke, US international Alexei Lalas and Turkish forward Hakan Sukur - the first Turkish player to make it to a FIFA World Select side.
Ravanelli's club side Middlesbrough were relegated from the English Premier League at the weekend, after drawing their final match with Leeds United and having had three points deducted for postponing a match mid-season without the league's permission.
'We are delighted to be welcoming Ravanelli to Hong Kong. He is a player of great distinction and talent, and he is one of the most popular figures in soccer in Hong Kong,' said Timothy Fok, executive vice-president of the Sport Community for Celebration of Reunification of Hong Kong with China.
'We are pleased that FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation [AFC] have drawn up two sides worthy of such an important occasion,' he added.