How the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup is impacting Europe’s big teams: Real Madrid, Inter, Juventus and more
How the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup is impacting Europe’s big teams: Real Madrid, Inter, Juventus and more
The FIFA Club World Cup from 2025 starts in less than a month, but most European clubs, which are most affected by the new Summer Tournament, make their movements already for the first edition of the new club World Cup organized by FIFA in the United States, a year for the FIFA 2026 World Cup, and MXICICAL. Since the tournament will take place in the summer, when there are usually no club matches in Europe, it is reformed how the biggest clubs are not only planning for the summer, but also the 2025-26 season, because in principle there will be no break between the end of the World Cup and the before season. First of all, let’s look at the 12 European club that will be involved in the event:
- Chelsea
- Manchester City
- Real Madrid
- Atletico Madrid
- Bayern Munich
- Borussia Dortmund
- Under
- Juventus
- PSG
- Porto
- Benfica
- RB Salzburg
Clubs bring early changes
Among the 12 clubs involved, Real Madrid is certainly the one who is preparing more for the summer and the coming season, because the Spanish giants are said to have already completed the deal to fully sign Liverpool back Alexander-Arnold, who will be out of contract at the end of June, and Bournemouth Center-back Dean Huijsen. At the same time, Real Madrid has decided to appoint a new coach, who will be Xabi Alonso, before the start of the Club World Cup, because Carlo Ancelotti starts his new role in Brazil in Brazil from 26 May. The club’s decision was not waiting for the summer, because other clubs will do and immediately start the new cycle among the Spanish manager, who will start working on the new season during the tournaments. The main reason behind the early change is not to waste time and start working on his new ideas during the tournament, because there will be less time in the preseason, with some players taking the free time before the start of the 2025-26 season.
Others are waiting for the end of the tournament
On the other hand, there will be other clubs that reduce their summer changes, such as Juventus. The Italian giants will probably replace their manager because caretaker Igor Tudor was appointed in March to replace Thiago Motta until the end of the current season. However, it is not yet clear what will happen after the club World Cup, with increasing rumors about a possible comeback from the current Napoli manager Antonio Conte from July. If Conte will be back in the club where he was the captain and then manager from 2011 to 2014, he starts from the preseason, from July, a few days after the end of the FIFA Club World Cup, which ends in the Metlife Stadium on July 13.
The extra window
All clubs, including Real Madrid and Juventus, will also be hit enormously by the schedule and the upcoming tournaments. Both PSG and Inter, for example, play the Champions League final on 31 May, two weeks before the start of the tournament in the United States. However, most of their players will be part of the national team matches in the first week of June for the qualifications of the World Cup 2026, which means that the managers are unable to work with the entire team until the week before the club’s World Cup. This is why most competitions enable teams to make transfer movements in the first ten days of June, for an early summer transfer window, so that the teams can adapt to their contracts that should be in the middle of the tournament on 30 June.
For example, Alexander-Arnold has his contract with Liverpool on 30 June, but thanks to the early window he can move to Real Madrid a month earlier, so that he can already play the FIFA Club World Cup with the Spanish side. It is clear that this is something new for most teams, and we do not yet know what consequences it will have in the 2025-26 season, because the teams do not have the time that is needed to restore their energies for the new season that will last to the World Cup 2026.
