Club World Cup | Paris Saint-Germain: The best football team in the world
On Sunday evening, Paris Saint-Germain will face Chelsea FC in the Club World Cup final. The winner will then be able to call themselves "the best team in the world." Few football fans, however, are expecting a particularly exciting match: The French are the overwhelming favorites going into the final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford. The winner will win €40 million. And all of this is happening under the watchful eye of US President Donald Trump , whose migration policy has been criticized by human rights organizations. FIFA is undeterred.
"We are one step away from crowning this historic season," said Fabián Ruiz. The Spanish midfielder for PSG was named man of the match in the semi-final against Real Madrid after scoring two goals. Overall, he and his teammates dismantled their Spanish opponents with a 4-0 victory on Wednesday evening and once again underlined their status as the best team in Europe at the moment. Paris won the Champions League final in May with a 5-0 victory against Inter Milan. They became champions of the French league and cup winners. With 16 goals and only one goal conceded, the team has marched through the Club World Cup so far, where they have dispatched top teams such as FC Bayern and Atlético Madrid as well as Real Madrid.
Maresca wants to do it like EnriqueThe recipe for so much success? "The goal as a coach is for our players to enjoy playing football and for the fans to enjoy watching us," says Paris coach Luis Enrique. "We're a dominant team that likes to have the ball, and it's difficult for our opponents to do the same," says the Spaniard.
The coach of final opponents Chelsea would be only too happy to do that. "Paris has a dominant young team that not only has great technical ability, but also plays at high speed, runs a lot, and presses a lot," said Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca in an interview with the Italian newspaper "Corriere della Sera." "Luis Enrique has built a spectacular team. In my own way, I'm trying to do the same with Chelsea," said the Italian. He took over as Chelsea head coach a year ago, leading them to fourth place in the English Premier League and winning the European Conference League. "It's been a dream start for me. It couldn't have gone better!"
However, as much as Chelsea has improved under Maresca, the team's successes seem small compared to those of their final opponents from Paris. Chelsea therefore enter the match as underdogs, even though the club has spent almost a billion euros on new players in the last two years. However, their most recent signing, Jo ão Pedro, gives them hope. In the semifinals, the Brazilian striker scored both goals in a 2-0 win against Fluminense Rio de Janeiro. "He's very good at dropping back, he interacts well with the other attacking players, and he's also very technically gifted," said coach Maresca of the double goalscorer. Maresca sees his late arrival at the tournament as an advantage: "It's good that he was on vacation. He's a bit more rested than the others."
The London club could be missing a key player in the final. Moisés Caicedo was forced to leave the field early in the semifinal after twisting his ankle. "He has to do everything he can to play on Sunday, but we'll see," said Maresca. The loss of the defensive midfielder would be a bitter loss for Chelsea, as the Ecuadorian has been one of the team's most important players this season.
With or without Caicedo, Chelsea will have to demonstrate their underdog qualities – and can learn from their own history. The London club unexpectedly defeated Real Madrid in the 2021 Champions League final. A little longer ago, they also defeated FC Bayern Munich in the "Finale dahoam" in Munich in 2012.
The Club World Cup problemParis, for their part, wants to take "the final step," says Luis Enrique. "We want to make history" – and officially become the best team in the world. That's what this tournament is all about, after all, isn't it? Not about creating a competition that allows FIFA, the world governing body, to make more profits from the industry known as football. The television rights for the tournament, which hardly seems to interest anyone in Europe and is played in mostly half-empty stadiums in the USA, were sold to DAZN for one billion US dollars – the streaming channel, in turn, sold shares in the company to the Saudi Arabian sports investment fund for the same sum. In this context, the awarding of the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia doesn't seem entirely coincidental.
With the new Saudi money, FIFA bought relevance and created incentives for Europe's top clubs to let their over-rated players play in three consecutive summer tournaments after the 2024 European Championship and before the 2026 World Cup. European clubs received between $12.81 million and $38.19 million for participation alone. The winners received an additional $115 million in prize money.
Trump friend InfantinoUS President Donald Trump will also be watching the historic first final of the newly revamped Club World Cup . "I will go to the game," he announced on Tuesday. He will likely watch the event together with FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Infantino is considered a strong supporter of the US president, has visited him several times in the Oval Office, was present at Trump's inauguration, and accompanied him on a state visit to Saudi Arabia.
In an open letter to Gianni Infantino, more than 90 organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, appealed to the FIFA president's conscience. They expressed "deep concern" about Trump's immigration policies, citing, among other things, "arbitrary denials of entry, detention, or deportation without due process" and warned: "If FIFA continues to remain silent, not only will millions of people be put at risk, but the FIFA brand will be used as a tool to whitewash the reputation of an increasingly authoritarian government."
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