Against all odds, Chelsea defeated Paris Saint-Germain in Club World Cup final to lift the first ever trophy of the new FIFA competition, which will not return until 2029. PSG, hot after winning the Champions League and defeating Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in the knock-out stages, seemed clearly favourite against Chelsea, the London team whose bigger honour this year had been winning the Conference League, a third-tier UEFA competition.
But PSG didn't even have a choice, suffering three goals in the first half and then seeing all their chances cancelled in the second half by an effective defence and an inspired Robert Sánchez. A defeat unlike anything we've seen for the most dominant team in Europe recently, that brings them down to earth before their defence of the European Cup next year.
Frustration led to some ugly scenes with Joao Neves pulling the hair of Marc Cucurella, and Luis Enrique assaulting Joao Pedro. But happiness returned when Chelsea were to lift the new trophy... even with Donald Trump "crashing" the party when he decided to join in with the rest of the team.
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Had Chelsea ever won Club World Cup?
While everyone considers this a new competition, technically it really isn't: the Club World Cup has been held since 2000 (although not every year) usually pitting the champions of every confederation, which in most of the cases meant that the Champions League winner each year had an opportunity to revalidate their title and get an extra trophy.
Chelsea, winners of Champions League in 2021, also won the Club World Cup that year, beating Palmeiras 2-1. Chelsea won Champions League in 2012, but that year they lost to Corinthians 1-0, meaning that Chelsea has two Club World Cups: the record book does not reset. Unsurprisingly, the clubs with the most Club World Cups are Real Madrid (5) and FC Barcelona (3).
From now on, Club World Cup will take place every four years, with 32 teams participating, and Intercontinental Cup (which debuted last year) will take its place the rest of the years.