Galaxy of stars to figure for legend

Jul 11 2007 by Chris Beesley, Liverpool Daily Post

Alan Ball, World Cup winner and one of the greatest players ever to pull on an Everton shirt. He died fighting a fire at his home _158

EVERTON legend and England World Cup winner Alan Ball is to be honoured with a tribute match in Milton Keynes later this month.

A galaxy of football stars including a European Footballer of the Year, eight ex-England internationals and three world champions from other sports – rugby World Cup winners Matt Dawson and Ben Cohen plus former world super-middleweight boxing champion Nigel Benn will be in action on Sunday, July 29 at the MK Dons Stadium.

The special game for the youngest member of Sir Alf Ramsey’s 1966 Wembley winners, who died in April aged 61 will be titled The Alan Ball Memorial Cup and will feature England facing a World XI.

Ball, who arrived at Goodison for a then-record fee of £110,000 shortly after England’s World Cup triumph, netted 66 times in 208 games for Everton and went on to win the League Championship in 1970 and formed one third of the most celebrated midfield units in the club’s history – ‘The Holy Trinity’ alongside Colin Harvey and Howard Kendall.

Former England stars turning out to honour Ball include Bryan Robson, Paul Merson, Matthew Le Tissier, Les Ferdinand, Dennis Wise, John Barnes, Chris Waddle and Lee Sharpe.

The World XI squad will contain Gianfranco Zola, Paulo Di Canio, Matthias Sammer, Stefan Freund, Tomas Brolin plus former Liverpool favourites Bruce Grobbelaar, Ian Rush and John Aldridge.

The game, which will help raise funds for the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK and the Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance Service, will also feature several showbusiness figures.

Organisers spokesman Lester Holcombe said: “The Alan Ball Memorial Cup is a unique event which brings together a clutch of household names from football, TV, film and music to compete in honour of one of English football’s best-loved sons.

“It will, quite simply, be the most exciting football event of the summer.”

TICKETS are priced at £30 for a Family Ticket (two adults and two children), £12 for adults and £6 for children and can be booked on 0870 145 1179 or by logging on to www.ticketmaster.co.uk