Ronaldinho, Ozil & Henry lined up to play in a new over-35s World Cup to be held
A new over-35s World Cup competition is set to be held in England this summer, with some of football’s greatest legends being lined up to play.
Plans are in place to launch an eight-team tournament involving England, Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Uruguay - the past champions of the FIFA World Cup.
Seven matches are scheduled to be staged in the same stadium over one week at the start of June. While the venue is still being finalised, Mail Sport understands talks have taken place with some of the Premier League’s biggest northern clubs.
The competition is being organised by the Elite Players Group (EPG) - a group of top-level former footballers and sports businessmen who joined forces last year - and will be known as the EPG Cup.
Under their proposals, only players who are aged 35 or over and have been capped by their country or made 100 top-flight appearances will be eligible to take part in the tournament.
The captains of each country are founders of the EPG. Steve McManaman is set to lead England while the other skippers are Esteban Cambiasso (Argentina), Emerson (Brazil), Christian Karembeu (France), Kevin Kuranyi (Germany), Marco Materazzi (Italy), Michel Salgado (Spain) and Diego Lugano (Uruguay).
The provisional squads being circulated and seen by Mail Sport include five former Ballon d’Or winners – England’s Michael Owen, Brazilian trio Kaka, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo, and Fabio Cannavaro of Italy.
England are also said to have already enlisted Ashley Cole, Joe Cole, Rio Ferdinand, David James, Frank Lampard and Robbie Fowler.
Other stars supposedly being lined up to feature include Brazil’s Cafu and Roberto Carlos and France’s Thierry Henry and Marcel Desailly.
Argentina are said to have Hernan
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