West Ham United appear to have opted for Lazio over Paris Saint Germain in their bid to land a high-profile pre-season friendly.
West Ham will take part in the Asia Trophy this summer alongside Manchester City, Newcastle United and Wolverhampton Wanderers (whufc.com).
Hammers boss Manuel Pellegrini ended a two year spell as boss of Hebei China Fortune to join West Ham.
Hammers set for China
It will be the second time the East Londoners have competed in the tournament.
West Ham competed alongside Tottenham, Hull and Beijing Guoan a decade ago back in 2009, finishing third in the four-team event.
The Hammers also want to end pre-season with a glamour home game at the London Stadium.
It will be the first home pre-season game since the match against Juventus which officially opened the London Stadium three years ago.
Date set for London Stadium friendly
West Ham have penciled in August 3rd for the game and ran a poll via social media and sites like Claret & Hugh for fans to vote on who they would rather face between PSG, Lazio, Monaco, Lyon or Sevilla.
Supporters voted in large numbers.
And it appears Lazio won the day (54% of the vote on C&H) if a report from Football London is anything to go by.
The report claims the Hammers are trying to make arrangements for the Rome side to come to East London but is not yet confirmed.
Many fans wanted to see PSG’s legion of stars strut their stuff at Stratford.
‘Italian brothers’ lined up for friendly
But Lazio’s status as West Ham’s ‘Italian brothers’ appears to have won the day.
There is an affinity between supporters of both clubs born from the Paolo Di Canio days.
A Hammers ‘legends’ team played a Lazio legends team last summer (pictured).
If the Serie A come to town it would see record signing Felipe Anderson face his former club.
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