By Dan Harrison

11.06.09

Who said pre-season is boring? It's been nearly three weeks since the final ball of the 2008-09 season was kicked at Villa Park. The void thus far has been filled nicely by a masterclass from Barcelona in the Champions League final and the frantic slogathon that is the Twenty20 cricket. But as a bit of a European football anorak I'll gladly put away the bat, ball and stumps prematurely to enjoy the festival of football that awaits Villa in the prelude to the new campaign.

Of course, I'm referring to the Peace Cup in Spain - a summer curtain raiser featuring some of football's glamour names. It's usually pretty hard to drum up enthusiasm for a pre-season tournament - particularly when there are intriguing and testing times ahead in the Barclays Premier League and Europa League.

But the entrants confirmed so far boast 14 European Cups or Champions League titles between them, while Liga de Quito, Seongnam and Al-Ittihad have also been kings of their respective continents.

While it's hard to imagine anyone will be showing their full hand or frenetically flying into tackles, plenty of teams would fancy the scalps of Real Madrid, Juventus and Lyon as a pre-season confidence-booster.

The tournament has endless subplots too. The second coming of the Galacticos starts here as Real Madrid, along with their world record signing Kaka and possibly Ronaldo, build up to the new La Liga campaign.

A fitting scenario for Villa fans would be a clash with Juventus and a chance to catch up with former favourite Olof Mellberg.

Claret and blue diehards will no doubt be watching with great interest for an insight into the make-up of Martin O'Neill's team as they aim to hit the ground running in time for when the real business gets underway.

Above all, it's mouth-watering just contemplating Villa being back among such glittering company. It will certainly whet the appetite for the big European nights which will follow at Villa Park.

Top 5 Peace Cup Players to Watch

Kaka (Real Madrid)
Diego (Juventus)
Gonzalo Higuain (Real Madrid)
Sebastien Squillaci (Sevilla)
Karim Benzema (Lyon)