Club World Cup Final 2025 - Chelsea 3-0 PSG

[Vesper 30,099]

On 14/07/2025 at 00:48, NikkiCFC said:

I noticed Josh just passed and didn't get a medal from Donald. 

maybe we have found where it went!

 

Trump seen pocketing FIFA medal as he walks on stage to hand Chelsea replica club championship trophy

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-winners-medal-fifa-club-world-cup-b2789441.html

U.S. President Donald Trump was seen sneakily pocketing a FIFA Club World Cup winners medal onstage moments before he handed Chelsea a replica trophy.

The president was given the medal to look at by Gianni Infantino while handing others out to the winning squad at New Jersey’s Metlife Stadium Sunday. Though videos showed Trump later tucked the medal into his suit blazer when the FIFA CEO seemingly reached for it back.

Infantino appeared to shrug off the incident, flashing the thumbs up and allowing Trump to keep the medal.

Eagle-eyed social media users were quick to react to the clip, which went viral over the weekend and following the game, with one labeling the brazen act “The Art of the Steal.” “He didn’t play a minute,” complained another.

 

snip

 

video at the top link

 

[Vesper 30,099]

How Chelsea won the Club World Cup: Big bonuses, training-ground deals and ‘scary’ Palmer

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6490171/2025/07/13/Chelsea-club-world-cup-win-story/

When Chelsea weighed up the future of Mauricio Pochettino in May 2024, one factor that came into play was the team’s involvement in the Club World Cup a year later.

Sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, along with Behdad Eghbali, the managing partner of majority owner Clearlake Capital, took the view the 2024-25 campaign and the 2025-26 season should be treated as a double season.

This presented a problem if they took a wait-and-see approach with head coach Pochettino, whose contract at Chelsea was a two-year deal ending in 2025.

Chelsea did not want the disruption of introducing a new coach just before the Club World Cup, and the window to replace a coach between the Club World Cup and the 2025-26 season would be too tight, which meant they needed to stick or twist with Pochettino.

The Argentinian, who is now USMNT head coach, departed and Enzo Maresca arrived.

The decision divided Chelsea fans but Maresca ends his first season having secured Champions League football, a Europa Conference league trophy and now — thanks in no small part to Cole Palmer — the title of Club World Cup champions.

To defeat Paris Saint-Germain’s previously irrepressible team represents a spectacular achievement for a Chelsea side which had been largely unfancied before the start of the tournament.

It aids the sense of a squad building momentum and developing a winning culture no matter what scepticism may exist about the competition.

Here, The Athletic tells the story of how they did it.

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The Club World Cup has always been taken seriously in the Chelsea boardroom, even before FIFA finally secured venues, a broadcaster and sponsors during a frazzling lead-up to the inaugural expanded version of the competition.

When deciding upon Pochettino’s fate, Chelsea did not know the precise riches on offer but FIFA had made clear there would be the potential of Champions League-level money.

In the end, Chelsea leave the United States $114 million (£84.5m) better off as the winners in the tournament.

That figure will be subject to taxes and must be set against Chelsea not being able to do their own money-spinning pre-season tour, but it remains an essential windfall in the context of the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) and UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules.

 

Spending on players such as Joao Pedro made the CWC windfall crucial for Chelsea (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)

Chelsea were recently punished by UEFA with a $36m fine for breaching financial rules, while they have also already spent over £100m this summer on Joao Pedro, Jamie Gittens and Liam Delap. More arrivals are expected, with Manchester United’s Alejandro Garnacho a long-term consideration.

Being crowned champions of the world will thrill the club’s accountants as well as their fans, given the increased commercial opportunities that status should offer, while for Palmer it could also be a transformational moment.

The England forward was one of the poster boys for this tournament, featuring heavily in promotional material and advertising throughout. It was his face which loomed large in a billboard over Times Square in the week of the final — along with the tagline ‘Scary Good’ — and when a Chelsea player was needed to accompany PSG’s Ousmane Dembele up the Rockefeller Centre on Friday to take publicity shots on a ‘girder’ overlooking the city (both men were safely tethered to their seats), there was no doubt who would be picked.

 

Cole Palmer joins Ousmane Dembele at ‘The Top Of The Rock’ (Ira L. Black – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

Palmer certainly lived up to the hype in the final, his two identical first-half finishes — and an assist for Joao Pedro — rendering what should have been an onerous task against PSG into a procession at MetLife Stadium.

Speaking before the final, Tosin Adarabioyo — who became a virtually inseparable social double act with Palmer during this tournament — told reporters: “His life has changed in the past two years. As banter sometimes, I call him like a little superstar. But he handles it very well. He knows he’s focused his career on football.”

Palmer’s post-match interviews may still cause some anxiety — DAZN had to apologise after Palmer said “Everyone’s talked a lot of s*** about us all season” to its reporter Kelly Somers — but after his match-winning turn in the final, his star power will only grow from here.

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The final may ultimately have been routine, but Chelsea’s journey there was anything but.

Due to the convoluted criteria for qualifying, it started over four years ago in May 2021, when Thomas Tuchel’s side defeated Manchester City to lift the Champions League.

The club was then owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and is now scarcely recognisable from that night.

Since then, Chelsea have been placed under sanctions owing to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Abramovich has been booted out of English football, the club has been taken over by Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly’s consortium and Maresca is Chelsea’s fourth head coach in a dramatic four-year period.

When Chelsea played Fluminense in the semi-final last week, Thiago Silva was the one player on the field who was in the starting XI when Chelsea beat City in 2021 — and he was representing the Brazilian side, having left last summer. Some 48 players have signed and even more have left since the new owners arrived in 2022.

On the ground in the U.S., Chelsea have faced obstacles, including a daft red card for striker Nicolas Jackson in the group stages and a five-hour last 16 game against Benfica. That included an almost two-hour delay for severe weather during which some players were calling family members back home while others stretched to stay warm.

Maresca, meanwhile, has had plenty of complaints. He described the circumstances in Charlotte against Benfica as a “joke” but has also sounded off about his players’ workload.

Chelsea’s competitive season began on August 18 last year, which makes this a 329-day campaign. He also had concerns about the temperatures his players endured in training during a Philadelphia heatwave, saying conditions made it “almost impossible to train.”

While Chelsea could not control the weather, they found other ways to try to seize a competitive advantage. They offered players bonuses on a par with those they might receive in the Premier League or Champions League.

The ownership moved fast to secure Delap’s signature from Ipswich Town before the tournament and also attempted to sign Gittens from Borussia Dortmund early, but that deal did not make the deadline to be registered for the group stages.

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Chelsea were keen to get Liam Delap signed before the tournament (Emilee Chinn – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

When the transfer window reopened for the mid-tournament registration window, Joao Pedro was signed from Brighton and his two goals against Fluminense in the semi-final secured Chelsea a minimum of $30m for advancing to the final.

The Brazilian ticked the box of the versatile attacker Chelsea wanted and he arrived in prime condition, having worked with a trainer while on vacation in Brazil.

While steps were taken to bolster the squad, the club were not prepared to hinder the overall long-term plan solely for the interests of this tournament, which is why Noni Madueke was allowed to leave between the semi-finals and final to have a medical with Arsenal.

Similarly, goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic could have gone to the U.S. but he wanted assurances about being first choice which Chelsea could not give. The competition was seen as a chance for all the goalkeepers to show what they could do, so a gentlemen’s agreement was put in place for him to stay behind and resolve his future. He subsequently joined Bournemouth for £25m.

Chelsea also splashed the cash to secure their preferred training facility.

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FIFA had created a brochure of training bases and hotels and told clubs it would cover up to $15,000 per day for training sites, but clubs could go it alone if they wished, though this led to complication with the Philadelphia Union.

The MLS club’s facilities were listed in the FIFA brochure. While Chelsea had two games in Philadelphia, so too did Flamengo, which risked the Brazilian team securing the base in accordance with FIFA’s lottery system for allocating bases.

Chelsea contacted the MLS franchise directly and made an agreement independent of FIFA, with the Union requesting to be removed from its brochure.

Flamengo instead trained at Stockton University in New Jersey, around 50 miles from Lincoln Financial Field, while Chelsea trained much closer to the stadium and a half-hour drive to their Four Seasons Hotel in central Philadelphia, a familiar haunt for the club from previous pre-season tours.

Chelsea then lined up Barry University in Miami to prepare for their round-of-16 game. They had originally hoped to top their group, which would have seen them play at Hard Rock Stadium, but they ended up in Charlotte after finishing the group phase as runners-up to Flamengo.

However, the Barry University facilities were among the most in-demand on the east coast — they were Real Madrid’s first choice, only for the Spanish club to defer to Boca Juniors under FIFA’s allocation system during the group stages. So Chelsea used Barry as a base until the semi-final preparations, when they moved to New York and utilised both New York City FC and New York Red Bulls facilities.

FIFA’s budget also allowed clubs a daily contribution during the tournament of $38,500, to cover the cost of an average travelling party for their stays in five-star resorts, food, travel and associated costs. Chelsea ended up committing almost double FIFA’s allowance during the tournament across all their costs in order to give their players the best possible preparation and prospects for success in the tournament.

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Chelsea arrived at the tournament in good spirits.

The Premier League ended in positive fashion on May 25 as they sealed a Champions League place before the Conference League victory over Real Betis added some silverware to the season.

Some players had a brief break and others headed away on international duty. Upon reconvening for four days of training at their Cobham training base in Surrey, Maresca told his players: “Guys, it’s not pre-season. It’s a tournament — a big, big tournament.”

Maresca took only a couple of days off, but said he could not be “100 per cent off” as he needed to get up to speed with teams he was less familiar with. On June 13, three days before their opening group stage game against LAFC, Chelsea flew to Philadelphia with 24 players, while South Americans Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Andrey Santos and Aaron Anselmino met them stateside.

 

Maresca took only a few days off before the Club World Cup (JUAN MABROMATA/AFP via Getty Images)

Chelsea’s approach to the tournament was emphasised by most of their players who had been loaned to other clubs having agreements in place which meant they could return to the club in time to feature in the Club World Cup. However, Chelsea saw the tournament as a continuation of the 2024-25 season and wanted to keep the group who had achieved their Premier League and Conference League targets by and large the same.

Santos, who shone at Strasbourg for the previous 18 months, was the exception because he has been earmarked to be part of the 2025-26 plans.

The remaining loanees were allowed to go on holiday and returned to pre-season training at Cobham last week. Chelsea saw little benefit in having them out in U.S., making the squad size too large and therefore threatening to undermine the competitive nature of the sessions.

Maresca sought to keep focus high but recognised his players needed adjustments. Ahead of the second group-stage game against Flamengo, he said: “It’s impossible for them as human beings to be fit or to be 100 per cent for 11 months. So this morning, we did the session and the main focus after the warm-up was just the tactical aspect.”

Although their training base in Philadelphia enjoyed a breeze from the adjacent Delaware River, they deployed huge industrial fans by the side of the pitch and cooling sprays to mitigate the scalding temperatures. Maresca also significantly shortened his sessions.

Chelsea collapsed against Flamengo and several calls went wrong for Maresca, who started Delap ahead of Jackson. He also tweaked his system, opting to start Reece James in midfield, pushing his full-backs Malo Gusto and Marc Cucurella high instead of inverting them, and opting for Palmer, by then 26 games without a goal, to the right wing rather than as a No 10.

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Jackson emerged as a substitute but was sent off, while the team performed poorly even with 11 men. Jackson apologised in the dressing room, and to the fans on Instagram, and a photograph of a subdued birthday celebration later circulated on X. Cucurella said: “He’s a young player with a lot of quality but maybe needs to improve a little bit in these things. He has to learn. After the manager spoke, he said sorry, he didn’t do it on purpose.”

Maresca said he was trying “something different” in his selection, with a view to next season, which highlighted how this tournament acted as a hybrid between pre-season experimentation and a competitive priority. This was highlighted, too, by Maresca using every outfield player at some point during the Club World Cup.

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By finishing second in the group stage, Chelsea actually gained an advantage as it placed them in the side of the draw that avoided PSG, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. When Inter Milan and Manchester City unexpectedly exited in the round of 16, a clear path towards the final opened up.

Yet Chelsea still needed to beat a Benfica side who had topped a group which included Bayern, while two Brazilian opponents awaited in the quarter-final and semi-final.

Chelsea have a far bigger budget but the Brazilian fans dominated the stadiums. Before the semi-final against Fluminense, Chelsea launched an initiative, asking their own players to promote tickets on Instagram to try and bring more blue into the MetLife stadium. Over 65,000 attended the match against Palmeiras in Philadelphia and over 70,000 turned out at MetLife, as tickets dropped to $11 for the quarter-final and $13 for the semi-final.

There was a more significant contingent of Chelsea fans for the final against PSG, helped by a large swathe of Ecuadorian supporters backing Moises Caicedo, and their dismantling of the team who had been billed as the world’s best will probably have earned them many more. The scenes at full time, when PSG and Chelsea players had to be separated by staff as tensions boiled over, gave an indication as to how much this occasion meant and how the French champions had been rattled by Maresca’s approach.

 

Chelsea and PSG players confront each other (Juan Mabromata/AFP via Getty Images)

Now, Chelsea players will finally have a three-week holiday, reporting back for training on August 4. Chelsea have not requested that the Premier League push back their fixtures to give the team a greater rest. Chelsea’s view is that their players will be rested, recuperated and ready to go all over again.

They will play warm-up games for the new season against Bayer Leverkusen on August 8 and Milan on August 10. They will begin their Premier League season 35 days on from the final of the Club World Cup.

And they will do so as champions of the world.

Additional reporting: Simon Johnson and Liam Twomey

[Vesper 30,099]

Trump’s trophy celebration and everything else you missed from the (weird) Club World Cup final

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6491734/2025/07/14/trump-club-world-cup-final-palmer-missed/

The FIFA Club World Cup final was unlike any football showpiece event we have seen before.

The Americanisation and politicisation of the event at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey was incessant, overwhelming and completely in keeping with the last few weeks.

Then the utterly unassuming Cole Palmer just ignored it all and stole the show anyway.

Here are our weirdest moments from a surreal night…

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It was long

A pre-match ceremony, a half-time show and an inexorably long wait for the post-match trophy presentation prolonged the night by what felt like several hours.

Here is a timeline of events…

8.08pm BST; 3.08pm ET: The match kicks off nine minutes late.

8.59pm: Half-time.

9.23pm: Second half begins.

10.14pm: Full time.

10.43pm: The trophy presentation begins.

10.58pm: Chelsea lift the trophy.

 

(Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)

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Trump was booed

The boos had been noticeable when he first appeared on the big screen before kick-off — and for the national anthem — but when President Donald Trump took to the pitch for the trophy presentation, this happened…

It was indicative of a number of fairly absurd cameos from the president, who had earlier appeared on DAZN in a manner that resembled him being held hostage and being told to say he was having a great time.

During that interview, which was screened after the trophy presentation, Trump called football a “growing sport”, like it’s a new game called padel or something, and was then asked if America could start dominating the football/soccer world (what this question was based on is unclear).

“We’re doing very well on the other stage, the political stage, the financial stage,” Trump replied, before going on to talk about Qatar, NATO, and the U.S. being the “hottest country in the world”, which was not a reference to temperature. That’s a no, then.

He was then asked about sport being a unifying, powerful tool. President Trump said: “It’s about unity, about everybody getting together, a lot of love between countries.

“I guess it’s the most international sport, it really can bring the world together.”

A novel idea.

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Trump wanted to lift the trophy

At least it appeared that way when he didn’t leave the stage as Chelsea captain Reece James waited patiently to hoist the trophy aloft.

As Trump’s new best mate, Gianni Infantino, headed off the stage after the pair had delivered the trophy into James’ hands, Trump decided to stay, standing next to goalkeeper Robert Sanchez.

Cue confusion. Palmer put his arm out in a “WTF” manner, James seemed to ask if he was going to leave, and Marc Cucurella stared inquisitively and started cackling when James spoke to him, before the captain went for it and Infantino returned to usher Trump through the crowd of Chelsea players and off the back of the stage.

Trump then proceeded to wave to the crowd as he made his way off the field, while being booed and jeered some more.

It was all completely bonkers and akin to… nope, there is literally absolutely nothing this has been akin to in the history of football or the world. It’s a totally unprecedented occurrence.

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Palmer swore

Palmer was the hero of this Trumped-up (double meaning) occasion in so many ways. As everyone around him lost their heads and just said how amazing and wonderful and glorious everything was, Palmer was beautifully himself.

It’s hard to imagine someone getting less caught up in the moment than Palmer, who was asked about his incredible record in finals after the game (he has scored in the 2024 European Championship final for England against Spain, turned the Conference League final on its head in May, and scored two and set one up here), to which he merely replied: “I like finals.”

 

(Alex Grimm/Getty Images)

He then continued saying exactly what came into his head by adding: “Everyone’s talked a lot of s*** about us all season, but we’re going in the right direction.”

Everybody should be a little bit more Cole Palmer than they were yesterday.

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Robbie Williams cradled a woman’s head

Williams was wearing the most outlandishly daft gold-tinted Adidas tracksuit, singing the official anthem for the tournament called Desire, which contains some of the most cringeworthy and completely meaningless lyrics ever committed to music.

“You’ve got the ball and you’re driven by desire. Aim high, fly by, destiny’s in front of you.

“It’s a beautiful game and the dream is coming true (viva soccer… FIFA!!!).”

Those lyrics are real, by the way. And the anthem clearly caught the imagination of the crowd, who loved singing along with him.

Halfway through the song, Williams was joined on stage by Italian singer Laura Pausini, whom he proceeded to cradle in his arms after stroking her hair.

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Luis Enrique clashed with Joao Pedro

PSG went down fighting at the final whistle and head coach Luis Enrique was at the centre of it, appearing to push or slap Chelsea forward Joao Pedro in a scuffle that also involved his goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma, full-back Achraf Hakimi and Chelsea’s Andrey Santos.

Luis Enrique and his players have deservedly had so many plaudits during a glorious season that included winning the Champions League at the end of May, but they were outplayed by Chelsea in the final and lost their composure and dignity in the closing stages, with midfielder Joao Neves sent off for pulling Cucurella’s hair before Luis Enrique took matters into his hands after the final whistle.

The coach and his goalkeeper were led away by PSG staff members before tensions could escalate further.

“At the end of the game, there is a situation that I believe is totally avoidable by everyone,” Luis Enrique said afterwards. “My goal and intention, as always, is to try to separate the players so that there are no more problems. Avoidable situation.

“There is a lot of tension, a lot, a lot of pressure and from there, there is a series of pushes by many people that we should all avoid and that should not happen again. But I repeat my intention as always, to avoid any situation that goes further.”

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Half-time lasted 24 minutes

Another thing to get used to for next summer is a half-time show. They’re having one at the World Cup and they had one here, which was fairly normal, apart from the fact it was held in the top tier of the stadium, not on the pitch, meaning those in the stadium could only see tiny figures moving around unless they watched the big screen.

Chris Martin curated the show, which featured J Balvin, Tems, Doja Cat, Emmanuel Kelly and then Coldplay playing A Sky Full of Stars, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact their guitars weren’t even plugged in.

 

(Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

If you missed all the pre-match and half-time music, the fact Coldplay and Robbie Williams were heavily involved tells you absolutely everything you need to know.

(Additional contributor: Oliver Kay)

[ahmedou 188]

I miss Prime Talk Chelsea. I don't know what's going on. It's not like before.

I miss a lot of legendary members. I don't know what happened for them.

It's been a long long time. 

Cheers.

[Fulham Broadway 17,306]

We silenced all the haters 

 

[ahmedou 188]

[Fulham Broadway 17,306]

One of our medals went missing

 

[Atomiswave 6,117]

51 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

One of our medals went missing

 

Fucking man child this clown, who the fuck gave him permission to enter our celebrations. A simple handshake and congrats would have been more than enough.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,801]

19 hours ago, ahmedou said:

I miss Prime Talk Chelsea. I don't know what's going on. It's not like before.

I miss a lot of legendary members. I don't know what happened for them.

It's been a long long time. 

Cheers.

So many people from several ebulletin boards have moved to Chelsea sub Reddit, it is a bit overwhelming with 400k+ members. It also has a lot of trash posts. Then you have the Twitter Chelsea groups that are absolutely unreadable. So negative and often not close to the truth.

[Mário César 1,236]

the future of the clubs is the reddit and not spaces like that 

[ahmedou 188]

THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING IS BLUE 

[Johnnyeye 7,501]

14 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

One of our medals went missing

 

what a fucking clown😡

[ahmedou 188]

[Fernando 6,585]

Lol not everything you see online is true especially with people with an agenda 

 

[ahmedou 188]

Women's Champions League 23/24: Chelsea 3-0 PSG (James #10 with 2 goals and Kerr #20 with 1 goal)

FIFA Club World Cup Final 25: Chelsea 3-0 PSG (Palmer #10 with 2 goals and Joao Pedro #20 with 1 goal)