Lion City Sailors v Sharjah - AFC Champions League Two final
Sharjah players celebrate after Marcus Meloni's winner in their AFC Champions League Two final victory over Lion City Sailors at Bishan Stadium in Singapore on May 18, 2025. All photos: AFC
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The National
14 hours ago
- The National
Al Hilal 'dream big' as they seek to make mark for Saudi Pro League at Club World Cup
The importance of this summer's Club World Cup to Al Hilal cannot be understated. This is, after all, a deeply ambitious club, the self-styled biggest club in Asia – a reputation they will seek to burnish against football's other continental giants in the coming weeks. They will be helped in that aim by a squad boasting numerous top internationals – whether they be home-grown Green Falcons or expensively imported stars lured to the kingdom since the PIF placed its financial might behind the Pro League's elite. That includes the Portuguese full-back Joao Cancelo, a player whose pedigree is underlined by the fact he has represented no fewer than five of the other sides – Benfica, Juventus, Inter Milan, Manchester City and Bayern Munich – present at the expanded 32-team tournament in the US. 'We'll go there to perform well,' Cancelo, who has won 60 caps for Portugal and also counts Valencia and Barcelona among his former employers, told Fifa's official website. 'First, we have to get through our group, which is the most important thing, and then it's a matter of going step by step and match by match. It is a beautiful competition. 'A lot of us will have our families and friends there to support us, and we'll give our best, just like the other teams. We have to think match by match and dream as big as possible.' Problematic prelude Dreaming big comes naturally to a club with a record 19 domestic league titles and four Asian crowns to their name – but it's undeniable Al Hilal depart for the US having endured a difficult build-up. Last season they garnered widespread acclaim for a world record 34-match winning streak under Jorge Jesus. A domestic treble was secured, although their Asian ambitions were dented by an inspired Al Ain in Abu Dhabi. But fast forward 12 months and Jesus has been sacked and the Riyadh giants have been usurped by their rivals from Jeddah – left behind by champions Al Ittihad in the Pro League and unceremoniously dumped out of the AFC Champions League by Al Ahli. Those setbacks have left Hilal scrambling to recalibrate ahead of a competition long earmarked as a key objective. That process has included a chaotic hunt for a marquee signing to replace Neymar, Hilal's quarter-of-a-billion-dollar white elephant who limped out of the club in January after 18 miserable months. Mohamed Salah, Bruno Fernandes and Victor Osimhen all reportedly turned down the riches on offer to be the face of Hilal's Club World Cup campaign. Italian influence One man who said 'yes' to Hilal is new coach Simone Inzaghi, who left Inter Milan after two Uefa Champions League final defeats in three years. 'My desire had always been to be able to go and coach abroad as well as in Italy and for me Al Hilal is a great opportunity in my career,' said the 49-year-old Inzaghi. 'Al Hilal is a club I know because I follow Arab football. We have been to play here in Saudi Arabia with both Lazio and Inter, so it is a championship that made me follow them, and I have always followed Al Hilal with big sympathy because they have Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, whom I have coached before at Lazio, and I am happy to have found him at the club,' he added in perhaps the least convincing 'I have always supported my new employers' speech ever recorded. With Inzaghi at the helm, it will be interesting to see if Hilal immediately switch to his preferred 3-5-2 having previously operated with a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 under Jesus. In Cancelo, he has the perfect right wing-back for his system, while Hilal's recent pursuit of attacking left-sided full-backs Theo Hernandez and Angelino suggests the new coach's tactical tastes are being catered for. Intriguingly, Inzaghi's arrival also means that both major Riyadh clubs are now dominated by Italians, with Stafano Pioli and his technical staff bedded in across town at Al Nassr. Clearly neither were put off by Roberto Mancini's disastrous tenure with the Saudi Arabia national team, while the roaring trade being done by the capital's Italian eateries has been an unexpected economic benefit of the PIF's investment in football. A blockbuster opener Unlike many of the sides in the Club World Cup, Al Hilal actually have some history in the old format of the competition, having participated in 2019, 2021 and 2022. In 2022, they even reached the final thanks to an upset victory over Brazilian giants Flamengo in the last four. And, on June 18, they are set for a reprisal of their 2022 title match when they face Real Madrid at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami in their Group H opener. Three years ago, that final ended 5-3 to Madrid. For Hilal, defender Ali Al Bulaihi, midfielder Mohamed Kanno and club legend and captain Salem Al Dawsari are among the survivors from that thriller in Rabat. Aside from Madrid, Hilal will need to perform well to progress to the knockout stages with Austria's RB Salzburg and Mexico's Pachuca making up the remainder of a challenging group. 'Both Salzburg and Pachuca will be as difficult opponents as Real Madrid,' insisted Cancelo. 'I watched a Pachuca match against Real Madrid some time ago and I liked the way they played. 'Real Madrid is always a very difficult team to face. They have dangerous attacking players. They are very strong in every area of the pitch, and that's why they are ever-present in the Uefa Champions League knockout stages. 'We'll go there to try to provide a positive answer to the challenge they represent to Al Hilal and to our fans, and hope to finish in a good position to enable us to go through to the next stage.' Brazilian magic and midfield steel With Hilal struggling to pull off some major deals on the eve of the tournament, it will be left to the club's existing roster of players to lead the way this summer. That includes the Brazilian striker Marcos Leonardo who has been a major success story in an otherwise difficult campaign. Leonardo, 22, was prolific as a youngster at Santos and was once regarded as a future star of the Brazilian national team before a tricky spell at Benfica stalled his progress. He has rediscovered his touch at Hilal with 25 goals across all competitions in 2024/25, easing the burden on his compatriot Malcom and the former Fulham targetman Aleksandar Mitrovic. Behind them, the Hilal midfield has a formidable look to it with Kanno and Milinkovic-Savic supported by Ruben Neves. At the back Moroccan World Cup goalkeeper Yassine Bounou and the Senegalese former Serie A standout Kalidou Koulibaly are mainstays of the side. 'Being among the 32 best teams in the world is very good for Al Hilal,' added Cancelo. 'Not only for Al Hilal but also for the image of Saudi Arabia and the Arab League, which has been growing a lot in these last couple of years, with some great players coming here. 'And that must be a source of pride for Al Hilal fans. It is an honour to take part in the Fifa Club World Cup along with all the best teams, and the best players in the world. We'll be going there to dream and to try our best.'
The National
14 hours ago
- The National
Tijjani Reijnders becomes Manchester City's fourth signing ahead of Club World Cup
Manchester City have confirmed the signing of Dutch midfielder Tijjani Reijnders ahead of this summer's Club World Cup in the US. Reijnders, 26, joins from AC Milan for a reported fee of €55 million and has signed a five-year contract which will keep him at the Etihad Stadium until 2030. The midfielder was signed before Tuesday's pre-Club World Cup transfer deadline and will be available for the tournament alongside fellow new recruits Marcus Bettinelli, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Rayan Cherki who also joined the club this week. Reijnders said: 'I am ecstatic to be signing for Manchester City. City are one of the biggest teams in the world, with the best coach, world-class players and outstanding facilities. "Under Pep Guardiola, City have won so many titles and I want to help keep that going with a lot more success in the coming years. 'It is also a dream come true to play in the Premier League. This league has seen many of the best Dutch players perform through the years and it's an inspiration to follow in their footsteps. 'I am really looking forward to getting going, meeting the other players and showing the Manchester City fans what I can do.' City's director of football, Hugo Viana, added: 'We are very happy that Tijjani has joined us and we're excited for him to join Pep's squad. 'He arrives here with extensive top level experience in Europe, both at club level as well as on the international stage with the Netherlands. 'Tijjani adds extra energy, composure and creativity to our midfield and working with Pep and our coaches will only see him go from strength to strength.' A Netherlands international with 22 caps, Reijnders began his professional career with PEC Zwolle before moving to AZ Alkmaar, where he made 128 appearances. He joined AC Milan in the summer of 2023 and went on to play 104 times for the Italian side. He enjoyed a stand-out 2024/25 campaign, scoring 15 goals in 54 appearances. His performances earned him the Serie A Best Midfielder award and a place in the Serie A Team of the Season. City's latest transfer activity continues an overhaul of the squad that began with the January signings of Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis.
The National
16 hours ago
- The National
Youcef Belaili back to his maverick best and looking to elevate Esperance at Club World Cup
It took around 46 minutes for the supporters of Esperance of Tunisia, numerous and fantastically noisy when circumstances demand, to fall in love all over again with a favourite maverick. The players had just emerged from half time on the opening day of the 2024/25 league season, Esperance at home to US Tataouine, when Youcef Belaili drifted across the penalty area, left to right, and was picked out by a neat angled pass from Yan Sasse. The rest was instantly familiar. A deft check inside his marker, then a booming trivela, curled from the outside of his right boot past a helpless goalkeeper. Welcome home, the brilliant, sometimes baffling Belaili. Esperance won 3-0, their first points towards another league title, number 34 on the club's unmatched tally of domestic championships, and here was Belaili doing just what he used to do in the blood-and-gold jersey. It was a soothing sight because there had been some scepticism when, last summer, the Algerian winger signed for a third time with Esperance. He was 32, and looked back on a zig-zag career peppered with shortened stays at some clubs and angry disputes at a few of them. 'The 'enfant terrible' is back,' suggested a headline in La Presse de Tunisie, wondering if a second return to Esperance might be one comeback too many. Ten months on, heading for a Club World Cup that was in Belaili's mind when he plotted his third stint at Esperance, the maverick has cast himself as main man in the club's ambitions to upset the hierarchy of a group that has Chelsea and Flamengo as its favourites and to push the North Africans into the knockout phase. Belaili arrives in the USA in the form of his life, the club's top scorer and top assister in a double-winning campaign – 34 goal-involvements in all from 24 games across competitions. In the CAF Champions League, where Esperance were narrowly eliminated in the semi-final, only Fiston Mayele, of champions Pyramids, finished with more goals than Belaili. He is back in the Algeria national team, too, recalled in March by a head coach, Vladimir Petkovic, who began his reign by directly referencing 'indiscipline' as a reason for excluding Belaili. Petkovic barely needed to cite the long history, from the ban, after testing positive for a prohibited substance that cost Belaili two years of his career in his mid-20s to the rows that led to the cancellation of his contacts at French clubs Brest and Ajaccio. There were sour endings to his stints at Al Ahli in Jeddah and Qatar SC, too. Nor was his exit from Mouloudia of Algiers, where he spearheaded a title-winning season in 2023/24, happily received there, his departure taken as evidence, in the eyes of some compatriots, of Belail's incorrigible restlessness. His stay there lasted just one year. This deep into his career, Belaili is stuck with that 'difficult' reputation, but when a player is supplying match-winning moments at such frequency, and delighting fans, a wise manager makes compromises. 'He made a great impression for us,' his coach at Mouloudia, Patrice Beaumelle, told So Foot magazine. 'He's a player who lives on instinct and for challenges. But put too many restrictions on him and he won't enjoy himself or be at his best.' And being so clearly at his best in his club football for two full seasons now has convinced Petkovic. Last week, Belaili marked his third game since his Algeria recall – his 54th cap in all – by scoring the first goal and setting up the second in Algeria's 2-0 win against Rwanda. That's fine form to be taking to the US adventure and the mark of a consistency that both challenges the well-established image of Belaili as erratic and speaks of a stability and leadership that has not been reflected elsewhere at Esperance. Notably in the dugout. There have been four head coaches in charge in 2024/25, and if none of them have doubted that Belaili should be their touchstone in attack, that high turnover gives a clue to the sorts of nervy expectation that drives Esperance club presidents. In October Miguel Cardoso was dismissed as head coach, five months after having led Esperance to a CAF Champions League final and to the club's 33rd national title. After the brief caretakership of Skander Kasri, Laurentiu Reghecampf lasted 24 games, invited to leave after a sequence of two wins in five. And so the wheel turned back to Maher Kanzari, twice previously an Esperance head coach. He'll be the man in charge for the Club World Cup adventure. Kanzari and Belaili go back all the way to the 2012/13 season, when Belaili was first making himself a hero at Esperance and the coach had his initial go aboard the club's managerial merry-go-round. A dozen years later, Kanzari was grateful of the savvy of his Algerian wizard to push Esperance through the last stages of a tight title race, the prize sealed on the penultimate matchday. 'Thanks to the experience of the players and the coaching staff, we came through a lot of challenges this season,' said Kanzari. 'This is Esperance. We have to finish on top,' added Belaili. It was his fifth Tunisian league title, to add to the 2012 medal from spell number one with the club; to the two titles, coupled with back-to-back African Champions Leagues, from his first Esperance sequel, the two seasons up until 2019, the year he also won the Africa Cup of Nations with his country. He's a player who lives on instinct and for challenges. But put too many restrictions on him and he won't enjoy himself or be at his best. Patrice Beaumelle, former Mouloudia coach But never has Belaili been so regularly effective as now with the club that keeps asking him back. Part of that is down to his slick dovetailing with Sasse, the Brazilian and his connection, along the left flank with the redoutable full-back Mohamed Amine Ben Hamida. Esperance recruited well in the winter transfer window, too, by signing Chiheb Jebali from Monastir, a creative passer and a strong alternative, delivering a dead ball, to Belaili's set-piece skills. Defensively, Esperance have tightened up over the two months under Kanzari's watch. If the group that awaits them in America looks daunting, with its opening test against in-form Flamengo, it offers possibilities of progress, particularly if they can go into their last first-phase game against Chelsea having beaten Los Angeles FC, the last of the 32 qualifiers for the tournament. 'We know how to make our experience in big matches count,' promised Kanzari.
