Dubai: Top football stars including Portugal’s super star Cristiano Ronaldo, England midfielder Jude Bellingham and Spain winger Lamine Yamal are likely to attend the 19th edition of the Dubai International Sports Conference and the 15th edition of Beyond Globe Soccer Dubai Awards on Friday.
The glittering ceremony will see more than 1,000 guests attend the event at Atlantis, The Palm.
Representatives from current European champions Real Madrid, including Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand will be among other high-profile guests from clubs and organisations around the world.
The Dubai International Sports Conference, organised under the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, will take place alongside the annual Globe Soccer Dubai Awards.
Since its inception in 2010, the awards have brought together football’s most prominent stakeholders for an evening of celebration across domestic, regional, and international levels, while the co-located conference provides the industry a platform to discuss and explore some of the key issues of the sport.
'Talented Football'
The theme of this year’s summit centres around “Talented Football”, which will be moderated by CNN’s Amanda Davis, who will co-host the main event alongside Tom Urquhart once more, with Ronaldo, Bellingham and Courtois as the guest speakers.
On the night, there will be 15 main awards presented, including Best Men’s Player, Best Women’s Player, Best Men’s Club, Best Women’s Club, the Maradona Award and five Career Awards.
The Globe Soccer Dubai Awards has already captured global attention, with more than 100 million votes cast by fans from more than 200 countries and territories, eclipsing the previous record of 70 million. Additionally, the Globe Soccer mobile app has surpassed a record two million downloads, underlining the event’s global appeal.
The SIRO Golden Ticket Auction raised Dh30,000, with 100 per cent of the funds raised going to the Al Jalila Foundation, a global health care organisation dedicated to advancing medical research, education, and treatment.
