Madrid make it five
Same old story in FIFA’s Club World Cup as European champions Real Madrid triumph in Morocco
Amid raucous Moroccan supporters revelling in the tricks of Vinicius Junior, the finesse of Federico Valverde and the goalscoring prowess of Karim Benzema, Spanish giants Real Madrid claimed a record fifth Club World Cup, adding to their three Intercontinental Cup trophies. They dispatched Asian champions Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia 5-3 in an entertaining final. At various stages in the match, the encounter should no longer have been a contest – 2-0, 3-1, 4-1 and 5-2 – but every time Al Hilal found a way to keep the match alive, exploiting Madrid’s cavalier defending.
Even though his team never looked like losing control, Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti conceded that Al Hilal had shown “skills and quality” against his side. “Europe is indeed very strong, but the other continents are getting closer to it,” said the Italian.
For Real, the victory represented a welcome break from domestic malaise. For those outside the hectic bubble of European football, the Club World Cup remains a tournament of paramount importance, with all the participants having their own reasons to attach significance to their participation. The Seattle Sounders were the tournament’s MLS debutants, becoming the first team from the United States to participate. They had earned the right by beating
Pumas UNAM in the 2022 CONCACAF Champions League final, finally breaking Mexico’s16-year stranglehold on the competition.
In Morocco, the Sounders fell at the first hurdle against Egyptian giants Al Ahly, 1-0. The Sounders outshot their African opponents12-9, but the goal came at the other end through a deflected volley from Mohamed Magdy Afsha. It was a heartbreaking, last-gasp exit for Seattle, but they demonstrated they had belonged among the other contenders, giving hope to the rest of MLS. “We make one little half a mistake, one little error, give the ball away in that part of the field, they hit the crossbar, we had a chance to clear it, it drops to [Magdy Afsha] and he shoots,” reflected
Seattle Sounders boss Brian Schmetzer. “Alex [Roldan] tries to block it and it goes in the goal. It’s really unfortunate after all the effort the players put in.”
That didn’t apply to Flamengo, the Rio club that had travelled to conquer the world but instead left red-faced after a shocking 3-2 semi-final defeat to Al Hilal. Cue an inquest. Where did the result leave Brazilian football on the global stage? Did Flamengo’s humiliating exit reinforce the narrative of a footballing nation in decline?
Brazil1970 legend Gerson pointed to the substitutions of attackers Everton Ribeiro and Giorgian de Arrascaeta as the reasons for Flamengo’s failure – without those two creative players the Rio club faltered when chasing the game. In his column for Brazilian newspaper Tostao questioned whether Brazilian players had the emotional stability to weather these major matches.
Flamengo’s braggadocio goes with the style and territory of the Gavea outfit: they have a fanbase of no fewer than 40 million supporters, something the club is increasingly monetising. Flamengo have never been wealthier, generating annual revenues of around 1 billion Reais (around £158 million). Having the deepest squad, the club won the Copa Libertadores and Copa do Brasil double in 2022, but a top-heavy team
proved vulnerable against Al Hilal. There was no coming back from Salem Al Dawsari’s opening goal from the penalty spot, and Gerson’s sending off compounded Flamengo’s problems. The club had paid over € 15m to bring the midfielder back to Brazil from Marseille after moving to France in 2021.
On and off the pitch, Flamengo have never been in a better position and yet
“Europe is indeed very strong, but the other continents are getting closer to it” Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti
it has not translated into winning the Holy Grail that is the global crown. That also has to do with economic realities. The gap between European clubs’ finances and the rest of the world has been clear for a while, and that inequality is mirrored in the results of this competition. Yet South America’s champions could usually expect to at least make it to the final.
Now, with the rise of Saudi Arabia as a footballing power and the money that they are prepared to spend, that may no longer be the case.
Al Hilal enjoyed a landmark tournament as the first Saudi team to reach the Club World Cup final, and it fell to them to try and wrestle the title away from Europe. No Asian team has ever lifted the trophy, and the last time it went out of European hands was to Corinthians in 2012, so there was little surprise that it didn’t work out for them.
As a number ten, Luciano Vietto provided a creative spark and striker Moussa Marega held up play well as target man. He should have gotten his team’s fourth goal late on in the final, but even so the valiant performance was a statement from Saudi Arabia’s biggest club, representing a country that is increasingly employing the global game as a reputationlaundering tool.
Visit Saudi and Neom, the futuristic yet-tobe-built city, were ubiquitous as sponsors in Morocco. Saudi Arabia have hopes of hosting the expanded Club World Cup in 2025, but for now will make do with hosting the next edition in its current guise in December 2023. The competition remains an incongruity in the football calendar, but at least the outcome is predictable: the rest of the world craves victory, but in the end Europe wins.