A major international soccer exhibition scheduled to be played this summer
in Ohio Stadium is expected to feature two of the sport’s most popular teams and, perhaps, one of
the game’s biggest stars.
Details are scheduled to be announced Tuesday
morning, but an online leak Monday afternoon indicated that Portuguese icon Cristiano
Ronaldo and global powerhouse Real Madrid could headline a match against French giant Paris
St.-Germain in late July on a temporary grass field in the 94-year-old home of the Buckeyes.
The game will be part of the International Champions Cup, a series of summer exhibitions that
has brought many of the world’s best teams to some of North America’s biggest stadiums since
2013.
The game will be played on a temporary grass surface.
A page on the ICC website briefly showed a full slate of 15 exhibition games this afternoon
before it was taken offline. It indicated that Real Madrid and Paris St.-Germain would play in
Columbus on July 27
.
The full schedule of ICC games will be announced at a 10 a.m. news conference in New York. Ohio State has scheduled a 1 p.m.
news conference in Ohio Stadium that will include athletic director Gene Smith, Crew SC
president of business operations Andy Loughnane and other officials.
If the ICC site was accurate, what is arguably the most successful team in the world will visit
Columbus for the first time.
Real Madrid has 10 European club championships, a record, and has won the Spanish La Liga 32
times. Ronaldo, one of the world’s richest and most popular athletes, is considered one of
the best players in the history of the game.
Paris St.-Germain has won the French Ligue 1 in each of the past four seasons and was European
champion in 1996. It’s top player, Zlatan Ibrahimović, is one of Europe’s biggest draws, having
starred in Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Ohio Stadium in its current configuration is not wide enough to meet official FIFA dimensions,
but a narrower field could suffice for exhibition play. The playing area could also be elevated and
extended over the lower portions of A-deck.
Crew SC played its home games on a narrow field in Ohio Stadium from 1996-98.
