Former Wanderers favourite Ivan Campo dusted off his boots to play in a Real Madrid legends game over the weekend.

The 49-year-old, who had a five-year spell with the European giants, played his part in a 5-0 win against an Alicante XI.

Edwin Congo bagged a brace, with Jose Amavisca, Fernando Moran and Alberto Rivera also getting on the scoresheet.

Campo has continued to support Wanderers from afar in recent years and was cheering Ian Evatt’s side on as they beat Plymouth in the Papa Johns Trophy final a couple of months ago.

He also returned to the North West to take part in Gethin Jones’ MND appeal in 2021, reuniting with Sam Allardyce and a number of his former team-mates to raise funds.

Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey, from Little Lever, was the man in charge in Orihuela at the weekend.

Halsey made the big calls in the top flight for 14 years between 1999 and 2019 and had refereed in the Football League for 12 years prior to that.

He took charge of some prestigious matches during his career in the game, including the 2008 League Cup final between Tottenham and Chelsea.

Campo posted several pictures from the game on his Twitter page and wrote: “Today I was with a special person and big friend: @RefereeHalsey. Very, very happy to see you again in Orihuela playing with @VeteranosRM.”

The Spaniard spent six years at Bolton, initially joining on loan from Madrid in 2002 before making the move permanent the following summer.

Campo was part of the star-studded side assembled by Big Sam alongside the likes of Jay Jay Okocha, Youri Djorkaeff and Fernando Hierro.

He made went on to make nearly 200 appearances for the Whites and also had a stint at Ipswich before finishing his career at Cypriot club AEK Larnaca.