Greek defenders Konstantinos Manolas, Vasilis Torosidis and José Holebas will be coming to Melbourne next year as their club Roma books a spot for the International Champions Cup.
All three are Greek national team players, with German-born Greek Jose Holebas a recent addition thanks to Fernando Santos’ World Cup selection.
The trio will come with a packed Roma squad to play international giants Real Madrid and Manchester City in the three team friendly competition.
Already Roma chief executive Italo Zanzi has said how keen he is to bring the team to Australia and meet the local fans.
“We had an excellent experience in last year’s ICC in the United States and are confident this tournament will also be a great success with top-notch competition,” Mr Zanzi said. “We very much look forward to playing in Melbourne and interacting with fans in the city, Australia and the region.”
The state government has pledged in excess of $10m to bring the heavyweights to Melbourne, and expect bumper crowds similar to the 95,000 fans that packed the MCG to see Liverpool play Melbourne Victory.
For the last two years, the USA has been hosting the Cup, with around eight teams participating including Liverpool, Real Madrid and AC Milan. If Melbourne is successful in keeping the Cup, we could be seeing Greek giants Olympiakos make it down for the tournament in the future after they played this year for the 2014 ICC.
The tournament will kick-off with Real Madrid facing Roma on July 18, followed by Manchester City against the Italians three days later.
It wraps up with City playing Real Madrid on July 24.
Tickets go on sale on Monday December 22 via ticketek.com.au