Ronaldo, Zinédine Zidane and Drogba, who are Goodwill Ambassadors to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), have gathered international stars such as Luís Figo, Pavel Nedvěd, Serginho and Christian Karembeu for a match against an equally star-studded HSV All-Star team including Zé Roberto, Jörg Albertz, Sergej Barbarez, Mehdi Mahdavikia and Anthony Yeboah. The match will kick off at 19.05pm local time in Hamburg's IMTECH Arena.
"I feel honoured to support people in the Horn of Africa, who are affected by drought and hunger, and I would like to encourage the public to join forces to overcome the crisis," says Drogba, who will be participating for the first time.
The annual "Match against Poverty", now for the ninth time, aims at supporting measures within the UN's Millennium Development Goals: eight internationally acknowledged objectives for defeating extreme poverty by 2015. The match will be aired live by more than 20 national and international television channels. Two thirds of the revenue will go to UN measures to fight the ongoing food crisis; the remaining proceeds will be donated by HSV to local sports, youth and environmental projects.
Joining Ronaldo, Zidane, Drogba & friends are, among others: Dida, Paulo André, Serginho (Brazil) Jens Lehmann (Germany), Fernando Hierro, Michel Salgado (Spain), Gheorghe Popescu and Georghe Hagi (Romania), Luís Figo, Maniche, Fernando Couto (Portugal), Christian Karembeu, Claude Makélélé, Robert Pirès (France), Steve McManaman (England), Pavel Nedvěd (Czech Republic), Fabio Cannavaro (Italy) and Dwight Yorke (Trinidad/Tobago).
The referee will be legendary Pierluigi Collina, while Marcelo Lippi, Bora Milutinović and Boris Becker will take on the role of coaches.
Tickets are available online at http://www.hsv.de/ticket