City's Dan Morgan celebrates a goal by Auckland City FC. Photo / Photosport
City's Dan Morgan celebrates a goal by Auckland City FC. Photo / Photosport
In terms of underdog ventures by New Zealand sporting teams, Auckland City’s quest at the 2023 Fifa Club World Cup is one of the biggest ever.
On the one side, you have a team featuring a Ballon’ D’or winner, who has lifted the UEFA Champions League five times and earnsmore than $150 million a season. You have an English Premier League champion with Liverpool and another with both Leicester City and Chelsea. You have a player who has won the Fifa World Cup and played in a European championship final, along with an Italian international with long stints at Lazio and Real Betis.
On the other side you have a teacher, a Coca-Cola sales rep, a real estate agent, a painter, a delivery driver, a car detailer and a project manager. That’s not to belittle the juggling required by Auckland City’s amateur squad but just to put in context what they will be up against when they face Saudi Arabian champions Al-Ittihad in the opening playoff game on Wednesday (7am NZT).
The Sandringham-based club has faced some daunting opposition on the world stage over the years but nothing quite like this. The 11-time Oceania champions are walking into a hurricane, as this appearance at the Club World Cup coincides with the Saudi stampede into football, which has seen its top clubs spend astronomical sums (even by football standards) to lure top talent from European teams.
Al-Ittihad have strong pedigree – they were Asian champions in 2004 and 2005 – but their standing has reached a new stratosphere since June. That’s when they were taken over, along with three other leading Saudi clubs, by the Government’s Public Investment Fund, a $1.1 trillion trough of oil money, which has also been used to purchase Newcastle United and create the rebel LIV golf tour.
France's Karim Benzema, who moved to Al-Ittihad earlier this season. Photo / AP
As the Saudi league doesn’t have any restrictions on transfer fees or wages (unlike in Europe), Al-Ittihad has been able to turn on the tap in a big way. That led to the signing of Karim Benzema, the French legend who scored more than 350 goals for Real Madrid and was the key factor in their 2022 Champions League triumph, a year where he was honoured as UEFA’s best player and picked up the Ballon D’Or. His deal is reportedly worth $180 million a season.
That’s why they were able to snatch Brazilian international Fabinho away from Liverpool, where he had helped Jurgen Klopp’s team to several trophies, assisted by a transfer fee of $82m. They also recruited N’Golo Kante, who played a pivotal role in France’s 2018 World Cup success and won almost everything possible at Chelsea, along with Leicester 2015-16 fairytale. The list goes on. They paid $38m to Real Betis for Italian defender Luis Felipe and invested $50m in Celtic’s Portuguese winger Jota.
The New Zealand team have faced big opposition before, including South American champions San Lorenzo (2014), North American champions Atlante (2009) and Cruz Azul (2014) and the J-League winners (2011, 2012, 2015, 2016) but no line-up as star studded as this. Or as monied.
Al-Ittihad are coached by Marcelo Gallardo, who won nearly everything during a long managerial stint at River Plate. The former Argentinean international brought six staff from the Buenos Aires club when he arrived last month. Football director Domingos Soares de Oliveira was hired in September, after 20 years at Benfica.
Against them is Auckland City’s cabal of talented amateurs. There are familiar faces, like All Whites midfielder Cam Howieson, former New Zealand striker Ryan De Vries and all-time leading scorer Emiliano Tade. Other notable names include Adam Mitchell, Michael den Heijer, Joseph Lee and Dylan Manickum.
Auckland City FC captain Cam Howieson. Photo / Photosport
They are well-coached by Albert Riera, backed up by Ivan Vicelich and former Real Sociedad goalkeeper Enaut Zubikarai. They train almost like professionals – up to four nights a week – but bridging the gap is tough, as most have fulltime jobs. And it’s been an arduous year, which started on January 3, as they prepared for their Club World Cup assignment in Morocco in February (the rescheduled 2022 edition.)
Since then they have played almost 50 matches, across the northern league, national league, Chatham cup and OFC champions league.
They arrived in Saudi Arabia last Friday, after a camp in Dubai, where they played two preparation matches against local professional clubs. That will help the adjustment though it will still be a massive step up against Al-Ittihad. The occasion will also be intense, in front of more than 60,000 in Jeddah.
Auckland City will be given almost no chance but also have nothing to lose.
