Football royalty will descend on the State Kremlin Palace Dec. 1 to assist in the much-anticipated 2018 World Cup draw.
Among the names are Argentina’s all-time great Diego Maradona and Italian World Cup champion Fabio Cannavaro, FIFA announced on Tuesday.
Together the eight draw assistants represent seven World Cup winning nations.
Other stars include Laurent Blanc who won the World Cup with France in 1998, Brazilian two-time World Cup winner Cafu, Uruguayan striker Diego Forlan, Carles Puyol who won the 2010 World Cup with Spain, and English goalkeeper Gordon Banks.
Russia will be represented at the draw by 91-year-old Nikita Simonyan, who played for the Soviet Union team at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden.
Retired English footballer Gary Lineker and Russian sports broadcaster Maria Komandnaya will be the main conductors of the draw.