Curious duel for FC Bayern: This club travels to the Club World Cup without any professional footballers

A football duel could hardly be more contrasting: At the Club World Cup, co-favorite FC Bayern Munich faces a club with no professional players. Some of the players even have to take unpaid leave for the tournament. For them, it's the trip of a lifetime.

Angus Kilkolly is a sales manager for a power tool company. His workday starts at 7:30 a.m. and usually ends at 9 p.m. Kilkolly also plays soccer for Auckland City FC. He has three to four training sessions a week, and he doesn't receive a salary for his hobby—just an allowance of around €90 a week.

The fact that he and his small New Zealand club are suddenly facing the world's top teams with big stars like Harry Kane, Lionel Messi, and Kylian Mbappé at the Club World Cup in the USA is simply "a dream" for the amateur Kilkolly. The problem: "I have to take four weeks off. I don't really have that much vacation left, so it will be unpaid," he told the AFP news agency.

"Feeling like a professional footballer"

But for a game like the one against FC Bayern on Sunday (6 p.m. on Sat.1 and DAZN, as well as in the live ticker at ntv.de ) in Cincinnati, Kilkolly and his teammates are willing to accept almost anything. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Being on the same field as these teams is pretty crazy," he said. It gives the team "the opportunity to compete on a global stage and feel like a professional footballer," the center forward emphasized, adding with a smile: "Without actually being one."

Nevertheless, the 13-time winner of the Oceania Champions League, who is also participating in the Club World Cup for the 13th time and even finished third in a different format in 2014, would love to annoy the big guys. "We don't concede many goals in New Zealand, so our goal is obviously not to concede too many goals at the World Cup," said Kilkolly, who, however, has a completely different goal at the World Cup opener: He would like to swap shirts with superstar Kane. "I think," he said with a grin, "he earns more in a week than I do in a year." If he's not mistaken, it might only be one day.

Duel of stark opposites

Either way, it's a clash of stark contrasts when Auckland meets Bayern. The Munich squad alone is valued at €903 million; their most expensive player, Jamal Musiala, is listed at €140 million, and Kane earns €24 million a year. And Auckland's amateurs, currently third in the Northern League, four points behind leaders Birkenhead United AFC? They're worth just €4.58 million – and according to transfermarkt.de, no player is worth more than €275,000.

While Bayern Munich play in front of 75,000 spectators at the Allianz Arena, the tranquil sports ground on Kiwitea Street in Auckland is attended by between 200 and a maximum of 2,000 fans. And after the home games? "We have a nice, small clubroom, and everyone enjoys a drink after the game," Kilkolly explained. In general, Auckland City FC is "a family club where everyone is welcome, you know everyone, you see the same people at every game." Sounds like a district league—and not at all like a multi-billion-dollar Club World Cup.