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Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard joins Nexon Icons Match

Published: 24 Aug. 2025, 16:21 Updated: 24 Aug. 2025, 16:24

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrad celebrates during a Premier League match against Manchester City at Anfield in Liverpool on April 13, 2014. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard has joined the 2025 Nexon Icons Match, completing the roster for the annual exhibition series set to feature some of the greatest has-beens global football has ever known.

Korean game company Nexon, producer of the FC Online and FC Mobile games, confirmed Friday the complete rosters for FC Spear and Shield United of the exhibition series with the addition of Gerrard.

“I am delighted to be managing him, and he is now a manager as well, so he may help me on the on the pitch,” Arsène Wenger, who will coach FC Spear in the Icons Match, said in a YouTube video shared by FC Online on Friday.

Gerrard will play at Seoul World Cup Stadium in western Seoul on Sept. 13 and 14 in what is expected to go down as an attack-versus-defense affair like last year's.

Last year's edition pitted FC Spear — consisting entirely of forwards — against Shield United, composed mainly of defenders, which drew around 64,000 fans to the stadium and 6 million viewers online.

This year, Gerrard joins a high-profile FC Spear lineup that includes former Barcelona forward Ronaldinho, former AC Milan winger Kaká, former Real Madrid winger Gareth Bale, former Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney, former Chelsea forward Didier Drogba and former United midfielder Park Ji-sung.

They will face Shield United, featuring veterans like former United defenders Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand, former Chelsea fullback Ashley Cole and former Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas.

Gerrard will face off against Shield United manager Rafael Benitez, who led Liverpool to the 2004-05 Champions League victory and lifted the trophy with the English midfielder.

Presale tickets for the Icons Match sold out within 10 minutes on Kream on Thursday, with 19,500 seats — 30 percent of total capacity — gone in minutes.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY PARK RIN [[email protected]]