April 16 – In a further boost to their brand awareness drive, Tottenham Hotspur are to become the latest European club to take on an all-star MLS side during the off-season.
MLS has announced the game will take place at the home of the Colorado Rapids on July 29 and be televised to more than 100 countries worldwide.
Last summer the MLS All-Stars beat Bayern Munich 2-1 and have also taken on Manchester United, Chelsea and Roma.
“The AT&T MLS All-Star Game continues to be one of the most entertaining and widely anticipated traditions for our league and for our sport in North America,” MLS president and deputy commissioner Mark Abbott said in a statement.
The match represents the 20th edition of the All-Star Game which began at Giants Stadium in 1996 when the Eastern Conference faced the Western Conference. The fixture eventually evolved into the current system where the MLS annually invites an established overseas club to participate.
Tottenham are first heading to Malaysia and Australia, where they have a huge fan base, in a quickfire end-of-season tour designed in part to engage with their estimated 170 million followers in the Asia-Pacific region.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino said the MLS game two months later will be a key fixture in preparing for next season.
“The fact that this will be our only fixture outside of Europe during pre-season says a lot about how we view this game,” he said. “We enjoyed three tough matches last summer in North America and the quality of football in MLS continues to grow every year.”
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