As Pep Guardiola noted, it is the first Club World Cup final in Manchester City’s history and on Friday an unexpected rival for the title of world champion awaits them: the Fluminense team from Brazil, which includes seven experienced players of this game.
The South American champions won their semi-final in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Monday with an XI that featured two players in their forties and five players in their thirties. The great 35-year-old Marcelo, a five-time Champions League champion Real Madrid left-back, is back for the club he first played for as a teenager and is certainly not the oldest.
Felipe Melo, who once played for Juventus and Inter Milan, is 40 years old. Fluminense goalkeeper Fabio is 43 years old; He started his professional career in 1997. The team that beat African champions Al Ahly also included right-back Samuel Xavier (33); attackers Ganso and Keno (both 34) and Argentinian German Cano (35).
Fluminense manager Fernando Diniz is now Brazil’s interim coach and his style of play has been compared to Guardiola’s possession-oriented approach. But in a country that is among the biggest producers of young talent and where Fluminense also has some youngsters, Diniz has a strong belief in experience. He also tried to persuade Thiago Silva, another graduate of Fluminense’s famous Xerem academy in Rio de Janeiro, to return. Chelsea’s defender is 39 years old.
Fluminense finished seventh in Brasileiro Serie A this month and may look more like Guardiola’s Soccer Aid squad than a team ready to challenge the might of the European champions. But there is another very important element to this: FIFA needs Fluminense to make the final against City on the Saudi Red Sea coast a suitable competition for the reputation of the Club World Cup.
At a meeting of the Fifa Council on Sunday, the governing body approved plans for a much more comprehensive, lucrative new 32-team Club World Cup format starting in 2025. 12 European teams will compete in this format and there is concern that these teams will dominate the knockout stage. The competition, which will be held every four years, is expected to start from the United States. In short, this could become a repeat of the UEFA Champions League, which is played in the summer months when players need rest and has little sporting value.
City’s 3-0 win against Asian champions Urawa Red Diamonds in the semi-final was one-sided. Urawa have not won the Japanese title since 2006 and have only attempted a single goal. Fluminense, which Diniz applied to an open-passing team, now has to decide whether to follow that belief into the final against the toughest team in world football.
As for reducing the quality gap between clubs in Europe and the rest of the world; This is an issue that a bigger Club World Cup would highlight rather than fix. This could benefit FIFA’s finances, but it would also show that European teams have the upper hand because of the wealth advantage that domestic and UEFA broadcasting contracts give them. Only three of the last 18 Club World Cups have been won by South Americans (Brazilians each time), with the rest being won by European teams.
Fluminense has promising young talents; These include Andre, the 22-year-old midfielder who is in the spotlight for Liverpool, and young Brazilians Matheus Martinelli, 22, and John Kennedy, 21. Diniz himself is an undisputed star. He is regarded as the current leading Brazilian coach, holding down the fort with the struggling national team until the arrival of Carlo Ancelotti in the summer.
“The experience of players like Marcelo makes a big difference,” Diniz said after the semi-final win. Their famous full-back won the game-changing penalty with a nutmeg and a dart reminiscent of his peak years. “He played in very big matches, he can adapt to the conditions and the opponent,” Diniz said.
Fluminense’s progress so far is remarkable. Diniz, 49, worked 17 jobs in 14 years as a manager. He will be in charge of Brazil in his 18th year. A former midfielder who spent his playing career in Brazil said the big names returning to the club had to learn a new approach and they were all adopting it. The Copa Libertadores victory was the first in Fluminense’s history.
Fluminense reached the Club World Cup final with annual revenues of £60 million, equivalent to around 10 per cent of City’s turnover. The club is managed by Mario Bittencourt, a sports lawyer who was re-elected as president this year and has come to the fore with corruption scandals in Brazilian football.
Rio rivals Flamengo have more wealth and the perception among Fluminense fans in the competitive world of Brazilian football is that their neighbors also have far more influence. Fluminense was founded in 1902 by an Englishman named Oscar Cox and won the Copa Rio, the forerunner of the Club World Cup, in 1952. Fluminense lobbied Fifa for recognition of the tournament, which the then governing body helped organize and which highlighted European teams such as Rapid Vienna and Sporting Lisbon as a real honour.
Despite all the aging legs in the current squad, the Xerem academy has produced some good young talent; The problem is, these don’t last long. Marcelo and Thiago Silva, as well as Brighton’s Joao Pedro, also started at the club, with Richarlison playing there for several formative years as a young professional.
Fluminense’s leading goalscorer, Cano, a physical number 10, has never been capped by Argentina but has 40 goals in 2023. This places him fourth globally behind Harry Kane, Cristiano Ronaldo and Erling Haaland. It will be interesting to see how Fluminense approaches the game. They are used to attacking. Given City’s appetite for possession, it could be a tiring night in the Jeddah heat.