As the most popular football event on the planet quickly approaches, locals and guests in all 11 Host Cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ can already get a foretast of the upcoming tournament, which gets under way in just two weeks.
On 2-3 June, the Russia 2018 Football Park is setting up on Kaliningrad’s Victory Square and everyone is invited to enjoy the attractions, quizzes and masterclasses with FIFA Legends Nigeria midfielder Jay-Jay Okocha and two-time FIFA World Cup winner, Brazilian defender Cafu.
On 3 June, the westernmost Host City has a special surprise in store for park-goers: a one-off exhibition match between a team of FIFA Legends versus Russia Legends.
The ‘away team’ includes Swiss goalkeeper Pascal Zuberbuhler, English defender Wes Brown, Cafu, Croatian midfielder Niko Kranjcar, Jay-Jay Okocha, Portugal striker Nuno Gomes. Switzerland, Croatia, England and Nigeria all have fixtures in Kaliningrad during the group stage of the World Cup.
The Russia team will be comprised of Ruslan Nigmatullin in goal, Dmitry Sennikov in defence, Alexander Mostovoi, Andrey Tikhonov and Alexey Smertin in midfield, Aleksandr Panov up front.
The Football Park has already been to nine Russia 2018 Host Cities: Sochi, Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd, Saransk, Samara, Ekaterinburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Saint Petersburg. Former Portugal striker Nuno Gomes was the guest in Sochi, ex-Iceland captain Eidur Gudjohnsen visited Rostov, legendary England defender Sol Campbell was invited to Volgograd, former Denmark goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel was shown around Saransk, while in Samara it was the turn of retired Colombia defender Ivan Cordoba. Marcel Desailly, who won the World Cup on home soil at France 1998, was in Ekaterinburg, Kazan hosted ex-Spain defender Michel Salgado and recently retired Croatia goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa visited Nizhny Novgorod. Most recently, renowned former Argentina striker Hernan Crespo was the special guest in Saint Petersburg.