Tomas Rosicky says Cesc Fabregas will be among the stars at his farewell to football in June and he hopes to reunite many more of his former team-mates.
The former Czech Republic international announced his retirement in December after an injury-plagued final few years of his career but will put on his playing boots once more at the Letna Stadium in Prague on June 9.
Rosicky hopes to bring together a team of Czech players to take on another filled with former team-mates from Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal and he has a lengthy and prestigious contacts book to go through.
“I’m in touch with many my former teammates,” the 37-year-old said. “The first of them was Cesc Fabregas and he will be there.
"You can’t 100 per cent sure if all invited players will come because there could always be some issue. He wasn’t on the national team for the last two years but there is still a possibility he will receive a call-up.
“I would like to have players like Mathieu Flamini, Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott or Mesut Ozil there but I don’t know which players will be national teams.
“From Czech players, I’m in touch with my former team-mates from the national team, mainly from our Euro 2004 squad so there would hopefully be players like Jan Koller, Marek Jankulovski, Pavel Nedved, Karel Poborsky, Petr Cech and others.
“You can’t organise the time of others so I fully respect and understand that guys have already filled their schedule with their families. I was in touch with Per Mertesacker for example but he has to be at a wedding in this time, you can’t predict things like this and it’s a normal situation.
“Another one player who I would like to see there is Santi Cazorla, for example. He has been injured for a long time but I hope he can come here even if he will not play.”
Rosicky spent 10 years at Arsenal before departing in 2016 with 247 games to his name, a hugely popular member of the squad albeit one whose time in north London was largely defined by injuries.
Arsene Wenger once said of the playmaker dubbed ‘Little Mozart’: “If you love football, then you love Tomas Rosicky”.
The former Arsenal No.7 was no less glowing in his assessment of Wenger after Friday’s announcement that the manager would leave his job after 22 years.
“I don’t think there will be anything like this in the future because Arsene Wenger was in the club for a very long time and he made a lot of hard work here,” Rosicky said. “It will be a huge change for the club and I’m really interested how it will look in the future.
“I think they knew it had to come soon because there were some changes and they distributed competencies to different people. I do not want to speculate about future coaches but I’m sure the new Arsenal coach will have to respect the values of the club same as Arsene Wenger.”
