the seven Argentines who dream of being champions with Julián Álvarez and the “host” Marcelo Gallardo at the helm

The painful defeat of Boca compared to Fluminense in the final of the Libertadores Cup disputed at the Maracaná in Rio de Janeiro a little over a month ago left without the presence of an Argentine team in the Club World Cup for the fifth consecutive edition. However, five of the seven teams that will take part in the tournament that will take place between December 12 and 22 in Saudi Arabia will have compatriots on their squads or in their coaching staffs. AND Only a huge setback could cause the champion to not have a national representative in its ranks..

This will be the 20th edition of a competition that Europeans dominate: of the previous 19, 15 were in the hands of groups from the Old continentwhile the other four were won by Brazilian teams: Corinthians in 2000 and 2012, Saint Paul in 2005 and Inter de Porto Alegre in 2006. As has been customary in the last decade, andThe Champions League champion will start as a super favorite to win the trophy.

In this case, it will be Manchester Citywhich has Julian Alvarez definitively consolidated in the structure of Joseph Guardiola. In his second season in the English team, the forward of the Argentine national team earned a place in the starting lineup (he played from the opening whistle in all of his team’s Premier League games until this weekend, in addition to three in the Champions League. ) and sum eight goals in 21 games.

The team that, a priori, is excited about breaking European supremacy is Fluminense. The Rio team entered this Club World Cup after winning their first crown in the Libertadores, largely thanks to the goals of German Cano. The striker born in Lomas de Zamora 35 years ago was the top scorer in the subcontinental tournament (he scored 13) and accumulates 40 goals in 59 games in 2023. Saudi Arabia is presented as an ideal territory to end this year optimally.

Since 2007, FIFA has reserved a spot for a club from the nation in which the tournament takes place. In this edition, that place will correspond to Al Ittihad for being the winner of the last Saudi league, a championship that in recent months has been notably strengthened by the arrival of top-level players. In fact, los Tigers They will present the most powerful squad of a non-European or South American team in the history of the Club World Cupin which the French stand out Karim Benzema y N’Golo Kante – The Best Of N’Golo Kantethe Brazilian Fabinhothe Portuguese Whom and the Italian-Brazilian Luiz Felipe.

The person in charge of conducting this experiment has been, for three weeks, Marcelo Gallardo. After a year of rest, the Doll He signed a two-year contract (with the option to extend it for another two) and has already led the team in five games, in which he recorded three wins, one draw and one loss. In this new experience he is accompanied by those who were his collaborators at River: his assistants Hernán Buján, Matías Biscay and Mariano Barnao, the physical trainer Pablo Dolce, the technical analyst Nahuel Hidalgo and the goalkeeper coach César Zinelli.

Winner in June of the Champions League of the Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean Football (Concacaf), Leon of Mexico will participate for the first time in a Club World Cup with the dream of, at least, equaling the best performance of a team from that country: the second place that Tigres obtained in 2020 after beating Palmeiras in the semifinals and losing to Bayern Munich in the final.

The squad of the club from the state of Guanajuato has two Buenos Aires residents: the defender Adonis Frías and the midfielder Lucas Romero. But not only that, it is also driven by a compatriot not too well known to the general Argentine public: the man from La Plata. Nicolás Larcamón39 years old, who spent his entire career as coach of major teams.

After playing in the lower divisions of New ChicagoLarcamón had his first experience as a senior driver in the Deportivo Anzoategui of Venezuela between 2016 and 2017. Then he passed through Chile (he directed Antofagasta, Huachipato y Curico) and landed in Mexico in 2021: he worked for two years in Puebla and in November 2022 he took charge of León. There are three other Argentines in his coaching staff: the assistants Damián Help y Javier Bergesand the physical trainer Juan Cruz Gutierrez.

The weakest team in this Club World Cup is a subscriber to this tournament: Auckland City New Zealander. The winner of nine of the last 11 editions of the Oceania Football Confederation Champions League had its glory days in 2014, when it stood on the podium of the ecumenical competition after beating Moroccan Moghreb Athlétic of Tetouan and Entente Sportive of Algerian Sétif, losing to San Lorenzo in the semifinals and beating Mexican Cruz Azul in the duel for third place.

This will be Auckland City’s 10th participation and the Santiago native’s ninth Emiliano Tade, the footballer who gave the present the most times in the tournament. The 35-year-old forward spent almost his entire career in New Zealand, with a couple of parentheses: he played a semester at Miter in his province in 2015 and two years in South Africa between 2018 and 2019 (he wore the jerseys of AmaZulu and Mamelodi Sundowns). Tade is the top scorer in the history of the Navy Blueswith 138 goals in 209 games.

The 20th edition of the Club World Cup will take place entirely in the city of Jeddah, on the shores of the Red Sea and 950 kilometers southwest of Riyadh, and will have two stages: the King Abdullah International Stadium, with capacity for 62,000 spectators (it is the largest venue in the country) and the smaller Prince Abdullah al-Faisal Stadium, which can hold 27,000 people.

The competition will open on December 12 at 3 p.m. with the only match in the first round: the one between Marcelo Gallardo’s Al Ittihad and Auckland City. The winner will face Egyptian Al Ahly in the second phase on December 15, winner of the last African Champions League and one of the two clubs without Argentine representation. On the same day and in the other match of that instance, the Mexican León will face the Asian champion, the Japanese Urawa Reds, the other team that does not have compatriots in its team.

Only in the semifinals will the South American and European monarchs join the competition. On December 18, Fluminense will play Al Ahly FC, Al Ittihad or Auckland City. A day later, Manchester City will make its debut against the winner of the match between León and Urawa Reds. The winners will play the final on December 22 at the King Abdullah International Stadium, while the losers will bid for third place on the same day at the Prince Abdullah al-Faisal Stadium.

In the event of a tie in the 90 minutes of any of the matches, another 30 minutes of extra time will be played; If parity persists, the winner will be decided with shots from the penalty spot.