NY COSMOS REVEAL FIRST SQUAD IN 26 YEARS

The New York Cosmos have revealed their line-up of players to take on a Manchester United XI at Old Trafford for Paul Scholes’ Testimonial in August.

Consisting of an combination of recently-retired legends, current starts, Manchester United old-boys and a handful of players from the Cosmos U-23’s academy the combination of players should prove an exciting one for those lucky enough to get tickets for the game in August.

Ex-Red Devil Nicky Butt will lead out a team supposedly hand-picked by Pel' and Eric Cantona, that is much a publicity exercise for the Cosmos as it is a valuable run-out for the Cosmos Kids (which is the name I’m coining for the New York U-23’s – you heard it here first, folks!).

Mere weeks after his own testimonial Gary Neville will once again stride the turf of the Theatre of Dreams, alongside fellow 2011 retire-ees Patrick Viera and Fabio Cannovaro.

How good will this look on the pitch at Old Trafford? Our guess is ‘Very, very, very’!

A small selection of still-active Premier League talent will also get their first trip to Old Trafford of the campaign, courtesy of the Cosmos, including recent Tottenham Hotspur acquisition Brad Freidel, soon-to-be Tottenham Hotspur departee Robbie Keane and Blackburn’s flaxen-haired Spaniard Michel Salgado.

Umbro will undoubtedly be thrilled at the surprisingly high-quality of players who will be donning their handsome NY Cosmos home kit for it’s first proper 90 minutes against what many will expect to be an – ahem – weakened Manchester United side.

The full New York Cosmos line up is as follows, with all Cosmos Kids (see, it’s catching on already!) marked with an *;

Nicky Butt, Chad Calderone*, Sol Campbell, Fabio Cannavaro, Ibrahim Diaby*, Stefan Dimitrov*, David Diosa*, Brad Friedel, Marvin Iraheta*, Robbie Keane, Brian McBride, Dane Murphy*, Gary Neville, Yanik Reyering*, Michel Salgado, Moriken Sangary*, Patrick Vieira