REAL MADRID
What are the seven trophies Real Madrid fans are dreaming of this season?
With the inaugural FIFA Club World Cup next June, Los Blancos could potentially lift an unprecedented seven titles this season.
One down, six to go!
In the previous footballing calendar, only two clubs ever managed to claim every available title in any given season with Pep Guardiola’s FC Barcelona first achieving the feat back in 2009 winning LaLiga, Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup along with the Champions League, European Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup before FC Bayern Munich repeated the sweep in 2020 with Manchester City going close as recently as 2023 scooping five titles but falling short with a FA Community Shield loss to Arsenal.
Following confirmation that FIFA are set to launch a new expanded 32 team Club World Cup (officially called FIFA Mundial de Clubes) next summer which will see a slimmed down six-team version of the former competition which will now be known as the FIFA Intercontinental Trophy, there are now seven major pieces of silverware on the table for all major European clubs to aim for this season with Real Madrid fans hoping Carlo Ancelotti’s side can pull off this historic feat.
Madrid claim title No. 1
Following their Champions League victory against Borussia Dortmund at Wembley Stadium last June, the 2-0 win sealed a place in the traditional UEFA season curtain raiser where the winners of the UCL and the Europa League do battle for the first official silverware of the new campaign. The National Stadium in Warsaw was the venue as new signing Kylian Mbappé made his debut and bagged the second goal as part of a 2-0 win over Bergamo based Atalanta.
Second up, the new FIFA Intercontinental Trophy
With the advent of the expanded 32 team Club World Cup, FIFA have created the Intercontinental Cup with the planned annual competition set to take place in December 2024 and will feature the club champions of the six FIFA confederations with the 2023-24 Champions of Europe (Real Madrid) getting a bye to the final with the venue for the competition yet to be announced.
2025 Spanish Super Cup
As of the 2019-20 season, the Spanish Super Cup has been a four-team event staged in Saudi Arabia with the ‘final four’ format featuring the first and placed sides in LaLiga along with the Copa del Rey finalists with the 2025 edition earmarked for Riyadh from 8-12 January. Real Madrid and FC Barcelona (first and second in LaLiga last season) will be joined by 2024 Copa del Rey winners Athletic Club and beaten finalists Real Mallorca with the Palma based side set to face Ancelotti’s men in the semi-final.
Copa del Rey
Given their activity in the Super Cup, all four participating sides are given ‘byes’ directly to the Round of 32 in the Copa del Rey and Carlo Ancelotti will look to repeat his side’s 2023 performance when they overcame Osasuna in the final. In recent years, the Spanish Cup has provided to be something of an ‘achilles heel’ for the Bernabeu side with recent high profile humiliating defeats at the hands of lowly Alcoyano, Alcorcon, Real Union still tormenting ‘Madridistas’.
The final for the 2024/25 knock-out competition will be, once again staged in Seville at the Olympic Stadium (La Cartuja) with the final earmarked for 26 April, 2025.
LaLiga 24/25
Who can stop Real Madrid in the domestic title race this season? Despite losing midfield maestro Toni Kroos, the club have brought in arguably the best football player on the planet in Kylian Mbappé with Carlo Ancelotti now facing the task of maintaining equilibrium in his talent packed squad. Barça are still struggling financially and with the season about to start still facing registration issues and it appears that the greatest threat to Madrid retaining their title may come across town where Atletico have been busy in the market with the likes of acquisitions in the shape of strikers Julian Alvarez, Sorloth and centre back Le Normand.
Real Madrid, however remain odds on favourites to lift the league title come May 2025.
Munich Champions League
It’s all change in the Champions League this season with the introduction of the new 36 team league ‘Swiss Model’ initial stage format. Qualified teams now play eight games in the opening phase before the competition reverts to the Round of 16 and traditional run-in. Few would bet against ‘Los Blancos’ bagging a 16th European title in the Munich final next May with Manchester City, PSG and Bayern Munich set to offer serious competition to Madrid’s aspirations of their favoured competition.
FIFA expanded CWC
The new FIFA Club World Cup, with 32 teams, will be held in the United States between 15 June and 13 July 2025.
The 32 teams will be divided into eight groups of four, which will play three games between them with the top two in each group advancing to the round of 16.
The participants are some of the biggest club sides in world football with the likes of Al Ahly, Wydad Casablanca, Palmeiras, Flamengo, River Plate, Al Hilal, Monterrey, Seattle Sounders and Pachuca just a few of the big name participants.
Europe will be represented by Chelsea, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, PSG, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan, Porto, Atlético Madrid, Benfica, Juventus and Red Bull Salzburg.
FIFA have yet to confirm dates nor specific venues as yet but the competition has been negatively received in many circles as ‘one too many’ in the competition with FIFPro threatening legal action should the tournament progress.
Assuming the ‘Mundial de Clubes FIFA’ does go ahead, the new competition could afford Ancelotti’s men with an opportunity to bag a seventh title, assuming his team have done their homework in the previous five competitions with the 2024 UEFA Super Cup already in the Bernabeu trophy cabinet.