Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard on invite list for Football For Fires fundraiser
Didier Drogba and David Trezuguet are already coming, Alessandro Del Piero is a maybe and now Football For Fires organisers are hoping to land a Reds great. It’s Football Confidential.
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He’s already had a couple of emotional trips down under – now there are hopes that Steven Gerrard could return to Australia to boost the bush fire appeals.
The Rangers manager and former Liverpool icon is among the players who have been approached to take part in the Football for Fires match at ANZ Stadium in May, to raise funds for communities affected by the bushfires.
If Gerrard accepts, he’ll join the likes of Didier Drogba and David Trezuguet in making their way to Sydney for the game on May 23.
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It had been thought that Gerrard would have commitments with Rangers, but the Scottish Premier League season ends the week before – and the Scottish Cup final has been brought forward to May 8 as Hampden Park will be used for this year’s European championships.
The two coaches for the game are locked in, and we hear that one of them – Guus Hiddink – has already declined an offer to have his flights and accommodation paid for.
Hiddink would rather that every cent raised goes to helping those whose lives have been turned upside by the fires – and to that end, United Airlines have committed to bringing North American-based stars Alecko Eskandarian and Wayne De Rosario.
Other airlines have also been approached to assist with flying in football luminaries, including Gerrard’s former teammates Vladimir Smicer and Patrick Berger.
Organisers remain hopeful of getting Italian legend and former Sydney FC star Alessandro Del Piero for the match.
RUBBING IT IN
The derby is meant to be a bit feisty, so we’re delighted to hear that Sydney FC intend to parade the A-League, W-League and NYL trophies at halftime on Saturday night at Jubilee Stadium.
According to the running order for the event, the trophies will still be out there when the Western Sydney players are due back out on the pitch – no doubt, just an innocent coincidence.
KEOGH FAILS TO FIRE UP
Interesting to see former Perth striker Andy Keogh struggling for form in the Indian Super League, after pitching up there when his contract in Saudi Arabia was terminated without warning, after just a few months.
We hear Keogh had an offer on the table – a big one, well into six-figures – to join Western Sydney in the offseason but instead opted for the Middle East. All that glitters isn’t necessarily petrodollars, it seems.
NICE TRIBUTE
There’ll be a low-key but enthusiastic tribute to former Socceroo Darren Stewart this weekend, with Toronto Stags taking on APIA Leichhardt 20s for the Darren Stewart Cup at Lyall Peacock Field in Toronto.
The game is the brainchild of Jets goalkeeping coach Chris Bowling, after Stewart died unexpectedly in Singapore last year.
UPS AND DOWNS
Injured Wanderers playmaker Radoslaw Majewski was all smiles this week at a major awards ceremony in Poland, even catching up with former teammate and Bayern Munich star Robert Lewandovski.
But Majewski wasn’t quite as chilled a couple of days before, giving an interview to a Polish newspaper in which he admitted he had initially wanted to kill someone after rupturing knee ligaments in training last September.
Doing his rehab in Poland, Majewski says he will fly back if the team makes the finals.