All eyes will be on Lionel Messi and Inter Miami as they open the controversial FIFA Club World Cup at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Saturday night.
By James Nalton
Inter Miami qualified for the tournament in controversial circumstances, too.
Though there was no doubt they were the most consistently good team in MLS in 2024, winning the Supporters’ Shield by topping the overall league table in record-breaking fashion, the qualification criteria for a US host team were not known until very late in the day.
In American sports, the post-season playoffs are used to determine that year’s champion, so many thought the host place should have gone to the 2024 MLS Cup winners, LA Galaxy.
But Inter Miami got the nod, meaning FIFA gets Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez, et al in their new-look Club World Cup tournament.
Stars still shine, but defence is an issue
Messi is not quite hitting the heights that saw him named MLS MVP in 2024, when he averaged over one goal per 90 minutes, but he remains the league’s outstanding player.
Messi tops the MLS charts for goals and assists combined with 15, is already in double figures for goals with 10, and boasts the highest FotMob rating in the league.
His teammate Luis Suárez is joint top of the assists charts with seven, while Sergio Busquets is still a master at playmaking from deep.
Despite having played a game fewer than most teams, and two games fewer than some others, Inter Miami are the highest scoring team in MLS so far in the 2025 season.
They do have a problem in defence, though, and only four teams in the 15-team Eastern Conference have conceded more goals than Inter Miami’s 27.
Coach Javier Mascherano was tasked with adding some solidity to the structure of the side behind the star names, but even though there was a promising start to 2025, the defence soon began to leak.
This will give Al Ahly plenty of encouragement.
Peripheral difference-makers and young prospects
There are a handful of Inter Miami players to look out for outside of the ex-Barcelona stars.
These include 22-year-old Venezuelan Telasco Segovia, Argentine forward Tadeo Allende, 20-year-old American Benjamin Cremaschi, and a couple of young Argentine midfielders, Federico Redondo and Baltasar Rodríguez.
Allende, 26, is second in the team’s goalscoring charts with six, and such performances in support of Messi and Suárez can make all the difference.
Segovia has seven goal contributions so far and has gone some way towards replacing the talent of Diego Gómez, who left for Brighton having been one of MLS’s standout young players.
Al Ahly – genuine giants of world football
Al Ahly qualified for this tournament on the back of their CAF Champions League win in 2021.
It’s a tournament they went on to win again in 2023 and 2024, meaning they met the main qualification criteria for this tournament on three occasions.
This goes some way to indicating the size and pedigree of the Egyptian club, who are one of the biggest in the world, not just in Africa.
Former Aston Villa forward Trézéguet, who was a youth player at Al Ahly before moving to Europe, has returned to the club ahead of the 2025/26 season and features in their Club World Cup squad.
They are captained by the Egypt national team goalkeeper, Mohamed El Shenawy.
Prediction
Al Ahly’s continental form in the CAF Champions League might give the best indication of how tough a test Inter Miami will face.
The Egyptians were knocked out on away goals in the semifinal against another Club World Cup side, Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa, and also lost a couple of group games in the most recent campaign.
It is one of the Club World Cup’s intriguing matches, featuring teams who will be looking to show they can mix it with opponents from other leagues, but as is the case in MLS, if Messi fires, Miami will win.
(Cover Image from IMAGO)
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