Michael Schumacher has proven his worth behind the wheel, but on Wednesday night he showed he is no slouch on the football field as he inspired a Formula One team to a 11-7 victory in a charity match for sick children.
BUDAPEST: Michael Schumacher has proven his worth behind the wheel, but on Wednesday night he showed he is no slouch on the football field as he inspired a Formula One team to a 11-7 victory in a charity match for sick children.
The drivers' team, which included Schumacher's Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa and Hungary's first F1 driver Zsolt Baumgartner, defeated a Hungarian All Stars team in a game that threatened to produce more goals than were scored in the entire World Cup.
The Hungarian team included professional football players, most notably Hungarian international Imre Szabics, currently of FC Cologne, and Peter Lipscei, captain of the recently relegated Ferencvaros.
However, the star athletes were backed up by a collection of overweight sports journalists, musicians and actors, many of whom looked like they were on the verge of heart attacks after the first few minutes.
Schumacher acknowledged the role of fitness in the victory, but refused to gloat over the result. "We had good players and we were in very good condition," he said after the game. "It doesn't matter who won though. The most important thing is the children."
Szabics opened the scoring in the 20th minute after already having a goal disallowed for offside, and he was immediately pulled off in what seemed to be a show of sympathy for the F1 team.
This proved to be premature, however, as Schumacher equalised within minutes, rounding the goalkeeper and slotting the ball away with the cool that has served him so well on the racetrack.
Szabics came back on, and although he scored another goal in the 34th minute, Schumacher was the real star, setting up several goals with great runs into the box and incisive passes.
Although the All Stars scored eight, their misses were more notable than their goals and several of the team showed they should stick to their day job.
Hungary's Zsolt Erdei, who last week successfully defended his WBO light heavyweight title, failed to show the same skill with his feet as he does with his fists and scuffed the ball wide from a few yards out in the 43rd minute.
Ageing Hungarian rocker Janos Kobor missed one of the best chances of the game in the second half, when the sight of an open goal seemed to startle him as much as his shaggy mane of eighties' heavy-metal hair startles all who see him.
Kobor was two yards from goal with nobody near him when he fell on his backside without managing to make contact with the ball.
The drivers added another four goals in the last 10 minutes, prompting the referee to join in on the side of the All Stars, helping them pull back three goals in the dying seconds of the game.
The match has become a popular annual fixture, and around 20,000 people turned up at the Ferenc Puskas stadium to watch.
Money raised from the ticket sales is earmarked for the UNESCO foundation Kinder in Not (Children in Need), children's hospitals and Red Nose, a foundation of clowns entertaining children in hospital.
Schumacher goes into this weekend's race looking to continue his recent blistering form and further catch up to Fernando Alsono. While Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport predicted that Schumacher would retire from motor racing at the end of the year, he does not seem ready to hang up his boots.
"If this match is organised next year, I'll be back", he said.
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