Watch Star Sixes at the O2 Arena live on Sky Sports
Squads and schedule info - watch on SS1 from 7pm on Thursday
Thursday 13 July 2017 19:14, UK
The Star Sixes tournament kicks off at the O2 Arena live on Sky Sports 1 on Thursday night.
Star Sixes: Rules & Regulations
World Cup winner Joan Capdevila was among the final five legends to confirm their places. Capdevila was in the Spain side exactly seven years ago as they became world champions in South Africa. He also helped Spain claim the Euro 2008 title.
The former Deportivo La Coruna and Villarreal left-back was the 10th player to join the Spanish side for Star Sixes, and will again link up with team-mates from those two successful summers, Carles Puyol and Carlos Marchena, for the inaugural Star Sixes tournament at The O2.
Meanwhile, Vincent Candela, who was in the France squad when they lifted the World Cup on home soil in 1998, and the European Championship two years later, was the last name unveiled in Robert Pires' Les Bleus squad.
Candela, a Serie A winner during an eight-year spell with Roma, also had a brief stint in the Premier League with Bolton, where he played alongside Nigeria Star Sixes skipper Jay-Jay Okocha.
France's opening night opponents, Germany, completed their 10-man squad by adding three more players to Michael Ballack's roster.
Live Star Sixes Football
Ex-Stuttgart midfielder Maurizio Gaudino, who also played on loan at Manchester City during the 1994-95 season, comes in along with former VfL Bochum schemer Dariusz Wosz, who collected 17 caps for Germany, as well as seven for East Germany.
And goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand, who spent the majority of his career at Stuttgart where he won the Bundesliga title in 2007, was drafted into the side as a replacement for Jens Lehmann.
Hildebrand played seven times for Germany and was included in squads for Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup as an understudy to Lehmann and Oliver Kahn.
A grand total of 120 players are confirmed for the big kick-off, with all 12 teams raring to go for Star Sixes and hoping to be the first winners of the trophy this weekend.
The 121st player to sign up for Star Sixes was former Northern Ireland international Maik Taylor, who will operate as reserve goalkeeper for all 12 nations.
Taylor will be on standby to deputise should any of the countries' goalkeepers be sidelined by injury or illness.
The former Fulham, Birmingham and Southampton keeper was capped 88 times at international level and is currently Northern Ireland's goalkeeping coach.
Star Sixes squads as follows...
BRAZIL: Roberto Carlos, Juliano Belletti, Gilberto Silva, Rivaldo, Elano, Dida, Juninho, Djalminha, Amaral, Julio Baptista
CHINA: Peng Weiguo, Peng Weijun, Xia Yao, Liang Jianfeng, Jiang Feng, Wei Qun, Liu Cheng, Chen Yongqiang, Hu Zhijun, Li Wei
DENMARK: Martin Jorgensen, Stig Tofting, John Sivebaek, Daniel Jensen, Mikkel Beckmann, Mads Junker, Chris Sorensen, Per Kroldrup, Hjalte Bo Norregaard, Jan Hoffman
ENGLAND: Steven Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen, David James, Emile Heskey, Phil Neville, Danny Murphy, Paul Merson, Lee Hendrie, Wes Brown
FRANCE: Robert Pires, Olivier Dacourt, William Gallas, Eric Abidal, Ludovic Giuly, Marcel Desailly, Sebastien Frey, Youri Djorkaeff, Bruno Cheyrou, Vincent Candela
GERMANY: Michael Ballack, Timo Hildebrand, Dietmar Hamann, Simon Rolfes, Marco Reich, Kevin Kuranyi, Jens Nowotny, Jorg Albertz, Maurizio Gaudino, Dariusz Wosz
ITALY: Alessandro Del Piero, Simone Barone, Fabrizio Ravanelli, Paolo Di Canio, Angelo Di Livio, Massimo Oddo, Marco Amelia, Stefano Fiore, Marco Delvecchio, Luciano Zauri
MEXICO: Jared Borgetti, Luis Hernandez, Garcia Aspe, Joaquin Reyes, Braulio Luna, Mario Mendez, Miguel Zepeda, Alberto Rodriguez, Hector Altamirano, Erubey Cabuto
NIGERIA: Jay-Jay Okocha, Celestine Babayaro, Daniel Amokachi, Julius Aghahowa, Garba Lawal, Joseph Yobo, Taribo West, Victor Ikpeba, Peter Rufai, Uche Okechukwu
PORTUGAL: Deco, Vitor Baia, Fernando Couto, Maniche, Jose Bosingwa, Raul Meireles, Nuno Gomes, Paulo Ferreira, Helder Postiga, Luis Boa Morte
SCOTLAND: Dominic Matteo, Don Hutchison, Christian Dailly, Simon Donnelly, Rab Douglas, Paul Dickov, Barry Ferguson, Jackie McNamara, Mark Burchill, Richard Hughes
SPAIN: Carles Puyol, Gaizka Mendieta, Fernando Morientes, Michel Salgado, Luis Garcia, David Albelda, Pedro Contreras, Alfonso Perez, Carlos Marchena, Joan Capdevila
Star Sixes schedule
Group stage matches will be played during three 'sessions' on Thursday, July 13, Friday, July 14 and Saturday, July 15 (afternoon session). All 12 countries will play one 20-minute match in each of these sessions.
Thursday July 13 evening session (Doors open 6pm)
Group A: England v Spain, Mexico v Scotland
Group B: Brazil v Italy, Nigeria v China
Group C: Germany v France, Portugal v Denmark
Friday July 14 evening session (Doors open 6pm)
Group A: Spain v Mexico, Scotland v England
Group B: Italy v Nigeria, China v Brazil
Group C: France v Portugal, Denmark v Germany
Saturday July 15 afternoon session (Doors open 11.30am)
Group A: England v Mexico, Spain v Scotland
Group B: Brazil v Nigeria, Italy v China
Group C: Germany v Portugal, France v Denmark
The evening session on July 15 will then feature four quarter-finals, before Star Sixes reaches a pulsating conclusion the following day. With the silverware at stake, the Sunday 16 July session will include two semi-finals, a third-place decider and the Star Sixes final.
Tickets for the inaugural Star Sixes, which start at £30 Adults and £10 Juniors, are on sale at www.starsixes.com
