FIFA Club World Cup 2025™: Celebrating Team Play

NEW TREND : TOWARDS TEAM PLAY

Twenty different players have featured in Chelsea’s starting line-up on the way to the final. Including those who came off the bench, Chelsea have used 27 different players in the tournament. PSG, on the other hand, have hardly changed their line-up, barring an injury or suspension. PSG’s style of play has been consistent, while Chelsea have changed their defensive and attacking formulas constantly.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Regardless of the style of play, both Chelsea and PSG rely on team coordination. Neither team relies on any star (or even a player who can be called a big star). Many people think that Ousmane Dembele (PSG) deserves to win the 2025 Ballon d'Or, but PSG has been a resounding success, winning like a piece of bamboo since Dembele had not yet recovered to return to the first team. Chelsea, in short, can choose whoever starts... it doesn't matter. In his first appearance in the first team, even though he had just completed his transfer to Chelsea 6 days earlier, Joao Pedro scored both goals to send Chelsea to the final.

Just 3 years have passed since superstar Lionel Messi "walked to the championship" (FIFA World Cup 2022), top-level football has changed completely. Talking about the 2022 World Cup champion Argentina is almost exclusively about Messi. To a similar extent, Kylian Mbappe in the runner-up team France. Turning to the Champions League arena in the following years, people clearly saw the importance of Rodri, Erling Haaland (Man.City) or Vinicius Junior, Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid). Now it's completely different: the uniformity and smoothness in team play brought success at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™.

RAZILIAN FOOTBALL IS STILL VALUE

Another notable feature of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ is that Brazilian football has been remarkably successful, with all four representatives advancing past the group stage. For Brazilian fans, this tournament, which FIFA has just expanded, is in some ways even more exciting than the World Cup for national teams. The country of football confers and enjoys the vibrant football atmosphere in every corner. What's better than the World Cup is that Brazil has four representatives in this tournament, meaning Brazilian fans get to watch and comment on "their" team every day. A global football festival without Brazil is... not possible.

The cold reality is that all of Brazil's best players now have to make a living on European football pitches, many leaving at a very young age (like Endrick who moved to Real Madrid at 18). As a result, Brazilian fans sometimes feel alienated from their national team players, more familiar with the "unknown" players of Fluminense or Flamengo.

The success of Brazilian clubs at the FIFA Club World Cup is partly due to their good form (this is the middle of the season in South America). Another reason is that Brazilian clubs know how to buy talent from South American football in general to compensate for the loss of Brazilian talent. As many as 30 players from 7 other South American football countries have played for 4 Brazilian clubs at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™.