IRON MAIDEN's STEVE HARRIS To Play Soccer For Charity In Portugal This Weekend

IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris will play in a charity football match this Saturday, June 15 at 8 p.m. at the Estadio Algarve in Portugal.

MAIDEN said in a social media post: "It's only €2,50 to get in and by participating you will help the most disadvantaged children in the Algarve, so round up your mates and hopefully see you there…"

In a video message announcing his participation in the event, Harris said: "So here I am in the beautiful Algarve, Portugal. Over my shoulder here is the Estadio Algarve or Stadium Algarve or Algarve Stadium, whichever way you wanna put it, and that's where I'm playing for charity on Saturday, 8 p.m. kickoff. And it's for underprivileged children in Portugal. So it's a really good cause. So if you can get there, make it down there. I think it's only like two or three euros to get in, or something like that, but try and round up a few people and get down there and support it. And, yeah, be there or be square."

Five years ago, Harris, an avid soccer fan, told WISH TV that he and some of his bandmates and crew members "try and play a game every six to seven days" while on tour.

"We've lost a few," he said. "We won last week, but we've lost a few so far. We've been playing some really good sides."

According to Harris, he doesn't "really train" for the soccer matches. "I've got a bit of an injury at the moment, so I don't want to train too much before," he said.

Harris said in a 2012 interview that he had given up playing soccer — for the most part. He explained at the time: "I've had so many problems with my back that I can only play the odd match here or there. Unfortunately, it's five years since I've played a full season of football and that's something that I miss a lot. But I had to make a decision. I play a lot of tennis."

IRON MAIDEN's 2023 "The Future Past Tour" featured previously unperformed songs from the band's most recent studio album, "Senjutsu", along with a focus on 1986's "Somewhere In Time" LP, plus other classic cuts.

"Senjutsu" came out in September 2021. It marked MAIDEN's second consecutive double album behind 2015's "The Book Of Souls" which is the longest MAIDEN album, with a running time of 92 minutes.

IRON MAIDEN's first album in six years, "Senjutsu" was recorded in 2019 in Paris with longstanding producer Kevin Shirley and co-produced by bassist Steve Harris. It features three tracks whose running time exceeds 10 minutes each.

For "Senjutsu" — loosely translated as "tactics and strategy" — the band once again enlisted the services of Mark Wilkinson to create the spectacular Samurai-themed cover artwork, based on an idea by Harris.

"Senjutsu" bowed at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, charting higher than even the band's early classics like "Powerslave" and "The Number Of The Beast". Nearly 90 percent of the LP's 64,000 equivalent album units earned came from pure album sales. The critically acclaimed double album debuted one place higher than 2015's "The Book Of Souls" and 2010's "The Final Frontier", which both peaked at No. 4.

"Senjutsu" was MAIDEN's 13th album to top in the Top 40 in the U.S.