How the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup is impacting Europe's big teams: Real Madrid, Inter, Juventus and more
The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup will start in less than a month's time but most of the European clubs, the ones most affected by the new summer tournament, are already making their moves ahead of the first edition of the new Club World Cup organized by the FIFA in the United States, one year before the FIFA 2026 World Cup scheduled to take place in the United States as well Canada and Mexico. As the tournament will take place in the summer, when there are usually no club games in Europe, it is reshaping how the biggest clubs are planning ahead for not only the summer, but also the 2025-26 season, since there will be basically no break between the end of the Club World Cup and the pre-season. First of all, let's take a look at the 12 European club that will be involved in the event:
- Chelsea
- Manchester City
- Real Madrid
- Atletico Madrid
- Bayern Munich
- Borussia Dortmund
- Inter
- Juventus
- PSG
- Porto
- Benfica
- RB Salzburg
Among the 12 clubs involved, Real Madrid are definitely the one preparing more ahead of the summer and the upcoming season as the Spanish giants have already reportedly finalized the deal to sign Liverpool full back Trent 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 have decided to appoint a new coach, who will be Xabi Alonso, before the start of the Club World Cup, as Carlo Ancelotti will start his new role at Brazil from May 26. The decision of the club was to not wait until the summer, as other clubs will probably do, and immediately start the new cycle under the Spanish manager, who will start to work ahead of the new season during the tournament. The main reason behind the early change is to not waste time and to start working on the his new ideas already during the tournament, as there will be less time in the preseason, with some players taking the time off before the beginning of the 2025-26 season.
Others wait for the end of the tournamentOn the other hand, there will be other clubs that will push back their summer changes, such as Juventus. The Italian giants are likely to replace their manager, as caretaker Igor Tudor was appointed in March to replace Thiago Motta until the end of the current season. However, it's not clear yet what will happen after the Club World Cup, with increasing rumors of a possible comeback of current Napoli manager Antonio Conte from July. If Conte will be back at the club where he was the captain and then manager from 2011 to 2014, he will start from the preseason, starting in July, a few days after the end of the FIFA Club World Cup, which finishes at the MetLife Stadium on July 13.
The additional windowAll the clubs, including Real Madrid and Juventus, will also be hugely affected by the schedule and the upcoming tournaments. For example, both PSG and Inter will play the Champions League final on May 31, 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 2026 World Cup qualifiers, meaning that the managers won't be able to work with the full squad until the week before the Club World Cup. This is why most leagues will allow teams to make transfer moves in the first ten days of June, for an early summer transfer window, so that the teams can adjust with their contracts due on June 30, in the middle of the tournament.
For example, Alexander-Arnold has his contract with Liverpool due on June 30, but thanks to the early window he will be allowed to move to Real Madrid one month earlier, so that he can already play the FIFA Club World Cup with the Spanish side. It's clear that this is something new for most of the teams, and we don't know yet what consequences it will also have on the 2025-26 season, as the teams won't have the time needed to restore their energies ahead of the new season that will last until the 2026 World Cup.
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