Gaelic David sizes up football giant

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By Stephen Chittenden BBC News The biggest struggle may be over who gets Ronaldo's shirt after the match

It is a long way from Real Madrid's 80,000-seat Santiago Bernabeu stadium to Tallaght, the Dublin suburb where the world's biggest football club plans to take on Shamrock Rovers in a pre-season friendly in July.

The gulf between the sides is huge. Real's new superstar Cristiano Ronaldo cost £80m - 3,200 times the price of Rovers' top goal scorer Gary Twigg, who transferred from Scottish side Brechin for £25,000.

Ronaldo is expected to make his debut at the brand new council-owned Tallaght Stadium, which normally holds just 3,500 fans but whose capacity will be boosted to 10,000 by temporary seating for the Madrid match.

Shamrock Rovers chairman Jonathan Roche prefers to concentrate on the things the two clubs have in common.

He says: "There are a lot of similarities between Real Madrid and Shamrock Rovers, if I'm not being arrogant.

Fans' takeover

"We're both members' clubs, owned by the fans. Obviously they're much bigger but we're both the biggest club in our respective countries."

Rovers have a proud record in the Premier Division of the Ireland League. Now at Tallaght they finally have a ground after being homeless for more than 20 years.

At one stage the club ran out of money, was deducted points and relegated. Survival depended on a fans' takeover. Each member now pays 50 Euros (£42) per-month subscription.

Mr Roche says the fixture will be confirmed once the paperwork is done.

Rovers' supporters see themselves as the biggest club in Ireland

"We're waiting on sanction from the Football Association of Ireland and also the temporary seats fire and safety certificates. But Madrid are coming here. They'll be playing us on 20 July."

He will also have to find room for the expected 65 Spanish journalists and 6 TV crews expected to accompany Real Madrid during their 10-day-long pre-season training stay in Ireland.

Tony Berney from the local supporters club, the Tallaght Hoops, is not getting too excited about the prospect of seeing Real Madrid.

"We see ourselves as the biggest club in Ireland," he says.

"We're used to playing European teams at the top level. We haven't done it in 20 years, but this is a bit of us getting back there. Maybe it's big for Real Madrid too."

The game comes in the middle of the Irish football season, and will be sandwiched between league and cup matches that Rovers' fans and players consider more important than a friendly against Real.

Nevertheless club manager Michael O'Neill has already begun plotting the superstars' downfall, albeit in an unusual manner.

'Brick wall'

"How do we stop them?" He asks himself.

"All I can think of at the moment is to build a brick wall across the goalmouth."

Rovers' vice captain Stephen Rice may find himself marking Real's other new multi-million pound signing, Brazilian Kaka. But he feels the players already know them.

"There is not much homework to be done," he says.

"You know a lot of the lads probably supported United last year and saw Ronaldo and Kaka, and we see them every night on TV."

But perhaps the biggest struggle of the match will come at the final whistle, when Rovers players try to grab a piece of football history by swapping shirts with the words finest players.

"Yes it would be nice," says Stephen Rice hopefully.

But it could kick off on the pitch between the 11 Shamrock Rovers players, fighting for Ronaldo or Kakas shirt.

Irish part-time footballers square up to Real Madrid giants