Monday, July 30, 2012

Real Madrid Announces Travel Roster For Herbalife World Football Challenge

(Phanatic Magazine) - Real Madrid, who will face Celtic FC at Lincoln Financial Field on August 11th, has announced its travel squad as part of the Herbalife World Football Challenge.

The 25-man roster features some of the world’s biggest stars, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Iker Casillas, Kaka, Mesut Özil, Sergio Ramos and many more.

Winners of nine European championships and 32 Spanish La Liga titles, Real Madrid are the reigning La Liga champions after winning the title in May. Their 32-2-4 record gave them a league-best 100 points and their 121 goals scored were league record.

Real Madrid’s offense, which has averaged 2.93 goals per league-game under head coach Jose Mourinho, is led by Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored a team-high 64 goals in all competitions last season. A former FIFA World Payer of the Year winner, Ronaldo is joined up front by Frenchmen Karim Benzema and Argentine Gonzalo Higuain, who have each scored more than 20 goals in La Liga the past two seasons. That trio is supported by a midfield that features World Cup and Euro champion Xabi Alonso, 2007 FIFA Player of the Year winner Kaka, Argentine winger Angel Di Maria and the German duo of Sami Khedira and Mesut Özil.

Along with their wealth of attacking talent, Madrid also have one of the best defenses in the world with World Cup champion and club captain Iker Casillas leading the way in goal for Mourinho’s squad. In front of him, Sergio Ramos, who was a member of Spain’s squads that captured the 2010 World Cup and the 2008 and 2012 Euro championships, marshals a back four that also features Portuguese internationals Fabio Coentrão and Pepe as well as Spanish internationals Raúl Albiol and Alvaro Arbeloa.

This will be the second consecutive season that Mourinho and Real Madrid will play in Philadelphia, after last year’s friendly against the Philadelphia Union which sold over 57,000 tickets.

Tickets for this year’s match are still available and can be purchased by visiting www.philadelphiaeagles.com, www.ticketmaster.com, or www.worldfootballchallenge.com.

Real Madrid Herbalife World Football Challenge 2012 Roster

GOALKEEPER (3) – Iker Casillas, Antonio Adán, Jesus Fernandez Collado

DEFENDERS (7) – Raul Albiol, Alvaro Arbeola, Fabio Coentrão, Jose Nacho Fernández, Pepe, Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane

MIDFIELDER (11) – Xabi Alonso, Jose Maria Callejon, Angel Di Maria, Lass Diarra, Alex Fernandez, Esteban Granero, Kaka, Sami Khedira, Mesut Özil, Jese Rodriguez, Nuri Sahin

FORWARD (4) – Karim Benzema, Gonzalo Higuain, Alvaro Morata, Cristiano Ronaldo

HEAD COACH – José Mourinho

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