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After a glittering career that saw him grace the European stage with some of its biggest clubs, Tiger Street Football ambassador Deco will be lauded by an array of former teammates - a who's who of footballing names as he takes centre stage at the Estádio do Dragão on 25 July, 2014.
The Brazilian-born Portuguese playmaker retired last August on his birthday, bringing the curtain down on a football journey that saw him win an armful of personal and club honours including an UEFA Club Football Player award in 2004, as well as the 2006 FIFA Club World Cup Golden Ball.
The testimonial match in honour of the former Portugal international will feature the two teams he won UEFA Champions League titles with; Porto's Class of '04 and Barcelona's Class of '06.
READ ALSO Deco to headline Tiger Street Football 2014
Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho will return to coach the Porto side that swept all in Europe, as players like Ricardo Carvalho, Vitor Baia, Maniche and Benni McCarthy take to the field once again.
As for Barcelona, Frank Riijkaard makes a one-off appearance as he manages a star-studded team which includes the likes of Ronaldinho, Henrik Larsson, Samuel Eto'o and Carles Puyol, as well as current stars Andres Iniesta, Xavi and Lionel Messi who are still at the club.
"There were more than 500 games at clubs like Porto, Barcelona, Chelsea and Fluminese. I had the pleasure of representing Portugal for 75 times and throw in some of the best competitions in the world as the Champions League, Euro and World," the 37-year-old Deco said.
"After thousands of miles in the legs, numerous trips, joys and titles came time to return the affection of the fans. It's time to say goodbye to the pitch with the people of my heart's club. I'll celebrate at Dragon Stadium with my colleagues, family, friends and all dragons."
FC Porto: Vitor Baia, Nuno, Jorge Costa, Pedro Emanuel, Ricardo Carvalho, Ricardo Costa, Carlos Secretario, Nuno Valente, Paulo Ferreira, Mario Silva, Costinha, Sergio Conceicao, Dmitri Alenichev, Jose Bosingwa, Maniche. Carlos Alberto, Marco Ferreira, Pedro Mendes, Edgaras Jankauskas, Derlei, Cesar Peixoto, Benni McCarthy; Jose Mourinho
FC Barcelona: Victor Valdes, Albert Jorquera, Juliano Belletti, Rafael Marquez, Carles Puyol, Edmilson, Sylvinho, Oleguer, Thiago Motta, Xavi, Ronaldinho, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Mark van Bommel, Gabri, Andres Iniesta, Henrik Larsson, Ludovic Giuly, Samuel Eto'o, Maxi Lopez, Lionel Messi, Gianluca Zambrotta, Eric Abidal, Diego Milito, Demetrio Albertini; Frank Riijkaard
For more information on Deco and Tiger Street Football, visit http://www.uncagefootball.com.
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Barcelona have confirmed the signing of Valencia defender Jeremy Mathieu as new boss Luis Enrique looks to revamp his squad.
The club broke the news of the new arrival on Wednesday morning via its official Twitter account.
Barcelona also confirmed the fee for the player on their website, agreeing a €20 million deal for the 30-year-old.
Spanish giants Barcelona have been warned they could be expelled from La Liga if the long-running campaign for Catalonia's independence is successful.
The pro-independence movement has been growing in Catalonia in recent years, with many Catalans feeling they deserve better economical and political treatment from Madrid.
A recent meeting between Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Catalonia president Artur Mas ended in disagreement over a plan for the Catalans to hold a referendum in November.
Spanish Football League president Javier Tebas has now joined the argument saying that an "inter-state" agreement would have to be reached with Barcelona if the campaign is successful.
The club have long been a symbol of Catalan independence and Mr Tebas said they would not be able to play in the Spanish football system under current reulations.
Speaking to AS, he said: "I don't like to speculate about impossibilities. Catalonia will always be Spain.
"And I'm not only worried about Barcelona, but Nastic, Girona, Espanyol, Llagostera and Sabadell. If the Sports Act remains the same, they could not compete in our league.
"We would have to change the Sports Act. Andorra, for example, play in our competitions because the law specifically states they can. There's an additional provision.
"Initially, Barcelona could not compete in La Liga unless there is an inter-that state agreement."
Combining his love of world peace with his love of soccer, Pope Francis plans to host a celebrity soccer match this September to promote a diplomatic resolution to the ongoing crisis in the Gaza Strip.
The exhibition game will take place on September 1 at the Olympic Stadium in Rome with "all-star players" like F.C. Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and the legendary – and contentious - Diego Maradona taking the pitch for the event. The leader of the Roman Catholic Church personally called his two fellow countrymen to invite them to the event “to play for the peace between Israel and Palestine,” the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.
The match will be hosted by the Pupi Foundation, a Buenos Aires-based charity founded by the Argentine soccer player Javier “Pupi” Zanetti, as well as the Pontifical Academy for Social Science. Besides Messi and Maradona, Brazilian start Neymar is expected to play along with Yossi Benayoun, an Israeli National Team star, along with former Italian star Robert Baggio, a renowned Buddhist, and former French player Zinedine Zidane, who professes Islam.
“More than anything, the goal is to show the coexistence of different religions on the soccer field,” a spokesperson for the Pupi Foundation who asked not to be named told Fox News Latino. “It’s not about making money, we want it to make it accessible to everyone.”
He added that the funds raised in the event will go to Scholas Ocurrentes, an organization sponsored by the pope to better education standards across the world, as well as the Pupi Foundation, which focuses on family values and children's rights.
The idea of the match, officially called Partita per la Pace (Match For Peace), was communicated by Pope Francis to Zanetti when they met in Rome back in April of 2013. However, the current war between Israel and the pro-Palestinian group Hamas gives an additional impetus to the reason for the game.
The war began on July 8 with Israel's air campaign against Gaza's Hamas rulers, whom Israel blamed for the kidnapping and murder in June of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank. Nine days later, Israel sent in ground troops to destroy Hamas' underground cross-border tunnels constructed for attacks inside Israel.
The fighting has so far killed more than 1,900 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, Palestinian and U.N. officials say. On the Israeli side, 67 people have died, all but three of them soldiers.
The latest outbreak of fighting is the third between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza since Hamas took over control of the densely-populated territory in 2007. Hamas has been consistently pushing for an end of an Israeli Gaza blockade, which Israel says is necessary to prevent the group from gaining access to weapons and munitions it deploys against Israelis.
Maradona posted on his Facebook page that he was excited and honored to be invited by the Pontiff to play for the cause in Rome.
“It is an honor to be invited by Pope #Francis, to participate in the Interreligious Match for Peace, on September 1st, at the Olympic Stadium of Rome," the Facebook post said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Barcelona will be unable to sign new players in the next two windows after a FIFA committee upheld their transfer ban.
The ban, suspended in April pending an appeal, was handed down after Barca were found guilty of breaching rules governing the international transfer of minors.
Barca fought their corner with FIFA's Appeals Committee but have been told the embargo stands. The club immediately confirmed it will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS).
The FIFA ruling means there will be no new arrivals at the Nou Camp between this September and January 2016 - provided CAS do not overturn the ruling.
A FIFA statement read: "FC Barcelona is to serve a transfer ban which will see the club prevented from registering any players at both national and international level for two complete and consecutive transfer periods, starting with the next registration period (January 2015).
"Barcelona has also been ordered to pay a fine of 450,000 Swiss francs (£296,000) and been given a period of 90 days from today in which to regularise the situation of all minor players concerned."
Barca took advantage of the ban's temporary suspension to bring in several big-money signings this summer, most notably Luis Suarez.
The ruling means they can further add to their squad between now and the end of the current window.
The Spanish Football Federation, fined as part of the initial verdict, also had an appeal rejected.
Barcelona made surely the most pointless offer of the summer earlier today, which paradoxically would have been the most spectacular transfer of the summer had it been accepted.
According to SPORT, the Catalan club made a €60m bid for Angel Di Maria on Friday morning, which was rejected by Madrid President Florentino Perez no sooner than it arrived in his fax machine.
Sport say Barcelona wanted to make the most of the tense situation between Di Maria and Madrid, since it became known yesterday that the Argentine has asked to leave Los Blancos.
Worth a shot from Barca, possibly, but was there any realistic chance Perez would sell to arch rivals and provoke the inevitable public backlash?
Indeed, there are rumbings within the Spanish media that the very aim of the Barcelona bid was purely to provoke and destabilize their rivals, as realistically the bid was never going to be accepted.
The only winners from this bid are probably…Manchester United.
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