Sydney Festival of Football

Sydney FC faced Scottish giants Rangers, Greek powerhouse AEK Athens (with Nathan Burns in tow) and then-Premier League club Blackburn Rovers (with Brett Emerton present too) for a small tournament. For the record, AEK won the tournament which wasn’t a huge success.

Brett Emerton against AEK

Galaxy returns to NSW

David Beckham’s LA Galaxy returned to Australian shores in late 2010, for a one-off friendly against the Jets in Newcastle. Landon Donovan opened the scoring but the Jets won 2-1 in front of more than 23,000 fans.

The Bhoys are back in town

Celtic visited Australia in mid-2011, losing 1-0 to Central Coast before winning 2-0 at Perth Glory in front of 15,000 fans. They finished off with a 1-0 triumph over Melbourne Victory in front of more than 20,000 supporters at Etihad Stadium.