Steve Nash to try out for Inter Milan

The two-time NBA MVP gets to become a soccer player again - if only briefly.

The Lakers guard who grew up playing soccer and still has deep ties within the sport will have a tryout of sorts with Inter Milan, before the storied team opens play in the Guinness International Champions Cup tournament that's coming to the U.S. next week. The tournament features eight club teams from around the world, with a winner to be crowned in Miami Gardens, Fla. on Aug. 7.

Tournament officials said the tryout will take place in New Jersey, two days before Inter Milan opens its portion of the Guinness event in Indianapolis against Chelsea. And Nash expects to be feeling a fairly ramped-up level of nervousness when he laces up his cleats for that training session.

The tournament begins Saturday when AC Milan visits Valencia. Juventus and Everton meet Wednesday in another first-round game, with the other opening matchups being the Inter-Chelsea game and Real Madrid taking on the L.A. Galaxy on Thursday.

The European clubs are primarily using the event as preseason training and the matches will allow for many more substitutions than normal, as is common with exhibition matches.

Nash played soccer and hockey as a child before starting his basketball career as an eighth-grader, primarily because most of his friends at the time were spending more time taking corner jumpers than corner kicks. His father, John, played professional soccer in South Africa and England, and Nash remains an avid soccer fan and is part of the ownership group for the Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer.