Darren Bent would ‘like to see’ Premier League All-Star match vs Bundesliga XI

Darren Bent has defended the idea of a Premier League All-Star match against a Bundesliga XI, saying he would ‘like to see’ it.

Chelsea owner Todd Boehly’s push to have an All-Star match is gaining traction with Premier League executives interested in taking on a European XI.

American billionaire Boehly faced criticism earlier this month when he suggested a North vs South Premier League All-Star match to be played during the off-season – likely overseas.

Despite the backlash – which saw Jamie Carragher label the Chelsea owner as ‘arrogant’ – the Premier League are open to the idea and, according to The Times, have been discussing what guise it might take.

Boehly’s version of how an All-Star match might work was just one of a number of ideas deliberated by Premier League club executives recently, and there was one proposal that stood out.

Rather than having an ‘in-house’ face-off between two teams made up of an assortment of players from England’s top-flight, a more popular plan was to form a combined Premier League XI to take on Europe.

That match-up could either see a Premier League XI take on a best XI from one specific league, or a combined XI from the Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1, Serie A and other top divisions.

‘I don’t think it can happen because there’s too many games already and the situation with the managers, but I’d still like to see it though,’ Bent told TalkSPORT.

‘I’ve watched the Pro Bowl in the NFL and the All-Star Game in the NBA. In the NBA, they go for it in the fourth quarter, which I quite like.

‘It’s not that I want to see it, but I would be interested to see it.

‘If a Premier League XI played a Bundesliga XI, and the Bundesliga XI went 1-0 or 2-0 up, their pride would kick in and they would say, ‘I’m not having that’.’

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