Manchester City are on the verge of their first Club World Cup title in their history – it would be a huge surprise if the Skyblues were to miss out. That wasn’t always the case
When former right-back and now popular TV pundit Gary Neville is asked to tell us which of his opponents was the best back then, which posed the biggest problems for him, he always ends up with the Brazilian world champion Romario. And the 2000 Club World Cup.
The original tournament, held for the first time within a week and a half in January 2000 in Brazil, while there was still the more prestigious World Cup (which Manchester United had won a few weeks earlier against Palmeiras), ended up with eight participants in two groups and no European finalists. In addition to United, Real Madrid also missed out on the final – due to their inferior goal difference – which Corinthians (Sao Paulo) won on penalties against Romario’s Vasco da Gama (Rio de Janeiro). After that, there was a four-year break.
Only when the World Cup was discontinued after 2004 was there another Club World Cup to replace it on a permanent basis. And which again failed to produce a European winner in 2005 and 2006. In 2005, Liverpool FC, who had won the Champions League final so spectacularly against AC Milan, were defeated by Sao Paulo FC with former Dortmund player Marcio Amoroso and the later Wolfsburg player Josué. A year later, FC Barcelona with Ronaldinho lost to Internacional Porto Alegre, for whom the young Alexandre Pato and Luiz Adriano were the strikers
Guerrero toppled CL winners Chelsea
After that, however, the Club World Cup became quite European, because players of Romario’s caliber now play almost exclusively for top European teams, usually at an early stage. Since 2006, only one non-European team has managed to become world champions of the club teams: in 2012, Corinthians defeated CL winners Chelsea with a goal from Paolo Guerrero.
On Friday evening, Fluminense Rio de Janeiro, coached by Brazilian national coach Fernando Diniz, will try to topple the CL winners in Manchester City in this year’s final. But without a prominent former Bundesliga player
