Inter Miami CF host Al Ahly in 2025 FIFA Club World Cup opener | OneFootball

MIAMI – The FIFA Club World Cup 2025 is set to kick off with hosts Inter Miami CF facing Egyptian side Al Ahly FC in Group A on Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida, USA.

Inter Miami enters a historic occasion in what will be the South Florida side’s debut at a Club World Cup. The Herons qualified as hosts after a standout 2024 season in which the team won its first MLS Supporters’ Shield, breaking the all-time MLS record for the most points in a single season with 74 points.

Managed by head coach Javier Mascherano, Inter Miami has been commanded on the field in recent seasons by legends of the game in Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez, who lead the attack with 15 and eight goals respectively across all competitions.

Miami’s squad also features several young talents, among them defender Noah Allen, who recently claimed the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup Young Player Award, presented by Aramco, and U.S. men’s national team midfielder Benjamin Cremaschi.

Al Ahly will begin its 10th FIFA Club World Cup appearance and first in the new 32-team format. Its best performances came as a third-place finish at the 2006, 2020, 2021 and 2023 editions. The Egyptian powerhouse secured its place in the tournament by winning the 2020-21 CAF Champions League, the top club competition in the African continent.

Al Ahly is well versed with Concacaf opposition at the FIFA Club World Cup, with a record of three victories and three defeats in prior editions. Inter Miami will be the fifth different Concacaf opponent for the Egyptian club, previously facing CF Monterrey (2012, 2013 and 2022), Club América (2006), CF Pachuca (2008) and Seattle Sounders FC (2023).

Match Game Notes

●      Al Ahly and Inter Miami are facing each other for the first time in a competitive match. Under the previous format of the FIFA Club World Cup, there had only been one match between teams from Egypt and the USA; in the 2022 edition, Al Ahly beat Seattle Sounders in the quarter-final (1-0).

●      Under the previous FIFA Club World Cup format, Al Ahly made 10 appearances. That’s more than any other African side and second only to Auckland City (12) across all teams. They also played more matches in the competition than any other team (27).

●      Under the previous format, Al Ahly’s best performance to date in the FIFA Club World Cup was third, with the latest coming in the 2023 and 2024 edition.

●      Only two of Al Ahly’s 27 matches under the previous FIFA Club World Cup format have ended in a draw (W11 L14).

●      This will be only the second match for a team from the USA at the FIFA Club World Cup and the first under the expanded format – the previous one was Seattle Sounders’ defeat against Al Ahly in the 2022 edition (0-1).

●      Al Ahly have both won more Egyptian top-flight titles (44) and more CAF Champions League titles (12) than any other club.

●      Inter Miami qualified for the FIFA Club World Cup as winners of the 2024 MLS Supporters' Shield, while Al Ahly reached the competition courtesy of winning the 2020-21, 2022-23, and 2023-24 CAF Champions League.

●      Under the previous format, Lionel Messi scored five goals in five matches in the FIFA Club World Cup, including scoring in all three finals he appeared in. Messi’s teams had a perfect record in the old version of the competition, winning all five matches by an aggregate score of 16-2.

●      Under the previous format, Luis Suárez scored five goals in two games at the FIFA Club World Cup, scoring a hat-trick against Guangzhou in the semi-final and a brace against River Plate in the final in 2015, the only player to score five goals in a single edition of the tournament under the previous format.

●      21 of the 49 goals Lionel Messi has scored for Inter Miami CF in all competitions have been assisted by one of his former FC Barcelona teammates (Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets, Luis Suárez).