Inter Milan forward and Argentina national player Julio Ricardo Cruz has teamed up with his sponsor, Italian sports apparel and footwear company Lotto Sport Italia, to help on two new research and development projects for footwear.

The first is a special project the company to create new products for the 2008 European Football Championship, whilst the second involves testing different technologies for sports footwear.

Mr Cruz played for Feyenoord from 1997 to 2000 and joined Inter in 2003.