YOUNG Salisbury FC players have the chance of a lifetime to mix with the world’s finest teams in a star-studded tournament.

The Southampton Cup is a brand new eight-day international youth football event, which is being hosted in Southampton and the surrounding area.

Two groups of Salisbury FC boys could face the likes of big guns RSC Anderlecht, Dinamo Zagreb, Deportivo de La Coruña and West Ham United.

The event will be made up of eight pro academy sides and eight elite clubs from around the globe and the UK. This will be divided into four groups of four, consisting of two pro academy and two elite teams.

Sides will play each other in a round-robin format with the top two from each group going into the main cup, the bottom two into the plate.

As well as having a minimum of five matches over the eight days, all teams will also get a behind-the-scenes tour of the training centre as well as St Mary’s stadium. The Ray Mac will also host two of the finals.

Mark Winter, from SFC Youth, said: “As academies use the calendar year to categorise age groups, as opposed to the school year which is used in grassroots, this means the under 12 section will be made up from our now under 11s and under 12s’ age groups. The under 14 squad will be from the current under 13s and under 14s.”

The tournament will take place in August.