The 32 teams qualified for the next 2025 Club World Cup are set. Yesterday evening, FIFA carried out, from Miami, the draw for the group stage of its new competition. Placed in Group B, Paris Saint-Germain, the sole French representative, will face Atlético de Madrid, the Seattle Sounders and Botafogo. This last opponent is also being talked about since his boss, John Textor, is also that of Olympique Lyonnais. And when we know the tense relations between the American and Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, everyone was watching for Textor’s reaction to this draw.
The businessman broke his silence in the Brazilian press. And obviously, he wanted to challenge the French champions. “Yes, we wanted to play against PSG. We know them, we have a brotherhood between our (Eagle) clubs, in our football family, and probably some of our players in Brazil could play for Lyon at one time or another. It’s a great opportunity, a great club, they have been champions in recent years. It was a great draw”he declared, before evoking the premonition of Luis Enrique who had declared before the draw to be certain of falling on the last winner of the Copa Libertadores.
“We’re not going to participate in the tournament if we don’t want to kick someone’s ass”
“I saw that. I would say I trust and like anyone named Luiz Henrique, right? I am of course talking about the player on our team. I saw that. I found this very funny. I thought the reporter’s question was excellent and prophetic. He’s a good guy, a great coach. Botafogo will try to surprise people, we are not here to be last, we are here to win matches. It’s a test for what I think is the best team in South America against big teams in Europe and I know football is played in South America. We will fight”he confided, before announcing, in his own way, his team’s intention not to make up the numbers.
“We have a lot of players who already have international experience. So I would say we have a very good team profile to beat some European teams. We tested our team in the first year in a friendly against Crystal Palace. And in this match, our boys performed very well. The match could have ended 0-0. It was a friendly match, so it’s not the highest level of intensity. But yes, I think we are at the level of many European teams. We’re not going to participate in the tournament if we don’t want to kick someone’s ass. We will try”. The message got through.
