Upcoming Match for Peace

Back in early August Lozil brought you news of the Pope organizing the Interreligious Match for Peace or Partita Per La Pace. The match is scheduled to be played on September 1 at Stadio Olympico in Rome at 8:45pm local time (10:45am EST).

The coaches for the match are Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and Argentina national team coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino. The players involved represent different cultures and religions: Buddhist, Christian (Catholic, Protestant, Evangelic), Jewish, Hindu, Muslim and Shinto:

Javier Zanetti, Argentina (captain)
David “Dudu” Aouate, Israel
Roberto Baggio, Italy
Abel Eduardo Balbo, Argentina
Emre Belozoglu, Turkey
Yossi Benayoun, Israel
Gianluigi Buffon, Italy (captain)
Fabio Cannavaro, Italy
Jose Antonio Chamot, Argentina
German Denis, Argentina
Samuel Eto’o, Cameroon
Emil Hallfredsson, Iceland
Gabriel Heinze, Argentina
Tomer Hemeo, Israel
Filippo Inzaghi, Italy
Ezequiel Lavezzi, Argentina
Cristian Ledesma, Argentina
Nicola Legrottaglie, Italy
Stefano Mauri, Italy
Lionel Messi, Argentina
Fernando Muslera, Argentina
Ronaldinho, Brazil
Roque Santa Cruz, Paraguay
Marcos Senna, Brazil
Andriy Shevchenko, Ukraine
Diego Pablo Simeone, Argentina
Fernando Tissone, Argentina
Francesco Toldo, Italy
Damiano Tommasi, Italy
Luca Toni, Italy
Francesco Totti, Italy
Carlos Valderrama, Colombia
Ivan Zamorano, Chile
Paolo Maldini, Italy
Antonio Mohamed, Argentina

There will be a halftime show, with performances from Argentine singer and actress Tini Stoessel and Italian singer Filippo Neviani (Nek).

All proceeds from the event will go to project “Un’Alternativa di Vita” (A Life Alternative), “whose aim is to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds at risk of social emargination to complete their schooling.” If you would like to donate to the project, information on how to do so is available on the PUPI Foundation home page.

-hopechaser