Former Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday men set to link up with World Cup-winning stars after bizarre ‘signing’ announcements

When the promised “spectacular opening ceremony” is over and the first whistle blows, football legends aplenty will look to roll back the years at the King's Cup in Dubai at the end of this month. Champions League and multiple Premier League champion John Terry captains one side, World Cup winners Roberto Carlos and Blaise Matuidi are amongst those slated to feature.

Amongst the football royalty - including Bobby Zamora - at the Al Maktoum Stadium, nestled in the Al Nasr Sports Club, will be a trio of players with connections to both Sheffield sides - some fleeting, and one a bit stronger. Ciaran Clark, who played 11 times for Sheffield United on loan from Newcastle United in 2022/23 before his season was curtailed by injury, has been announced as a player for the event.

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Also featuring are former Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper Keiren Westwood, who made almost 200 appearances between the sticks for the Owls and is still fondly remembered by the Owls fanbase, and another ex-Magpies man in Achraf Lazaar, who played a handful of times on loan at Hillsborough back in 2019.

Manchester City legend David Silva - who won the World Cup with Spain in 2010 as well as the European Championships in 2008 and 2012 - has also been announced alongside former Manchester United and England man Paul Scholes, ex-teammate Michael Owen and Paul Pogba, now a free agent after mutually agreeing to terminate his Juventus contract after his four-year doping ban was reduced to 18 months on appeal. Pogba - another World Cup winner with France in 2018 - is free to play club football again next March.

Pogba and Carlos will both wear “King’s Guard” shirts, limiting them to 15 minutes per half for their sides but meaning they can play alongside their 11 teammates. The pair are also exempt from being flagged offside and can’t be given red or yellow cards. “The first event we did involved Manchester United, and the second one also involved the Red Devils and a World 11,” event founder Mohammed Mousa told Gulf News. “So I realised we needed to mix it up this year.

“I got involved with the Sheikh and we said: ‘Okay, let's try and build a concept very different to what we've been doing all along’. We both put our A-listers together to create two teams with outstanding quality. We’re trying to do what they’re doing in Saudi, but we’re doing it a little different. That’s how the King's Cup was born.”