NEW YORK (AP) – AC Milan will play Inter Milan in an exhibition game at Foxborough, Mass., on July 26 – just the third meeting outside Italy between the city rivals.

The match at Gillette Stadium will come on the final day of the World Football Challenge, a four-team tournament that also includes England’s Chelsea and Mexico’s Club America.

AC Milan will be without David Beckham, whose loan from Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Galaxy ends at the conclusion of the Italian season in June. But AC Milan’s roster includes 2007 FIFA Player of the Year Kaka, 2004 and 2005 FIFA Player of the Year Ronaldinho along with Pato, Andrea Pirlo, Clarence Seedorf and Filippo Inzaghi.

Inter, closing in on its fourth straight Serie A title, is led by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and coached by the flamboyant Jose Mourinho, the self-dubbed “Special One.”

The only times the teams met outside Italy were in Chiasso, Switzerland, in 1908 and at Yankee Stadium in 1969.

Chelsea, which lost to Manchester United in last year’s Champions League final, is unsettled following the firing of coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who was replaced through the end of the season by Guus Hiddink. The Blues, who face Liverpool in the Champions League quarterfinals next month, feature Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and Michael Essien.

Inter opens the tournament July 19 against Club America at Stanford Stadium in California. Inter then plays Chelsea two days later at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.

AC Milan, a seven-time European champion, faces Club America on July 22 at the Georgia Dome and meets Chelsea two days later at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. Chelsea at Club America play July 26 in one of the first events at the Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium.

ESPN will televise all six games on its networks.

Chelsea, which will train in the United States for the fifth time in six years, also will play at Seattle’s new MLS team July 18. It will be preparing for the Premier League openers Aug. 15.

“We can’t stress enough the fantastic sports facilities that exist here in the U.S. As a consequence of that, preseason training is aided rather than hampered,” Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon said.

AC Milan will play the Galaxy on July 19 at Carson, Calif., part of the deal that extended Beckham’s loan beyond March 8.

“Obviously, it’s not ideal as far as preparation is concerned to play every other day,” Gandini said.


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