Mbappe, Messi & Ramos – big names set for Club World Cup

The Club World Cup is back in the summer – and this year’s event will be larger than ever, with a host of the biggest names in football set to feature.

Thirty-two teams from around the globe will take part in the tournament across 11 cities in the United States, with the month-long action beginning at 01:00 BST on Sunday and ending on 13 July.

You do not have to wait long until the superstars appear, with teams having finalised their squads for the big kick-off.

Inter Miami, fortunate to be included as they won the Major League Soccer Supporters’ Shield for the best performance in the MLS regular season – even though LA Galaxy went on to win the actual MLS play-offs and were left out, kick-start the competition on day one.

Eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi is part of a legendary quartet of ex-Barcelona players at Inter Miami, alongside former Liverpool striker Luis Suarez, midfielder Sergio Busquets and left-back Jordi Alba.

Defender Sergio Ramos, a World Cup winner with Spain in 2010, is captain of Mexican side Monterrey, while striker Oliver Giroud and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris – who both played in France’s World Cup-winning team in 2018 – are in the Los Angeles FC side that will be in the competition after they won a play-off against Mexican side Club America.

Fellow World Cup winners Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann are in the Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid squads respectively.

Fans of the two English teams involved will get an early glimpse of their new signings.

Manchester City have selected Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Marcus Bettinelli and Rayan Cherki in their squad, while Chelsea’s summer recruits – Liam Delap, Dario Essugo and Mamadou Sarr – will also feature.

It promises to be a busy summer for some key members of the England squad.

The Three Lions played two games in June – winning 1-0 in a World Cup qualifier against Andorra in Barcelona on 7 June before losing 3-1 in a friendly against Senegal at Nottingham Forest three days later.

The game at the City Ground took place just four days before the club tournament starts in the USA.

England captain Harry Kane and midfielders Jude Bellingham and Conor Gallagher will play in the United States for Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid respectively.

Real will have England right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold available for the tournament after they paid Liverpool £8.4m to sign him a month before his contract with the Reds expired.

The Spanish giants have also included centre-back Dean Huijsen, who they signed from Bournemouth for £50m last month.

Chelsea’s England quartet Cole Palmer, Reece James, Levi Colwill and Noni Madueke will be in the United States after a busy end to the season, which included winning the Conference League final on 28 May.

There are 12 European teams competing in the United States, based on their achievements in Uefa competitions over the past five years.

Chelsea qualified via winning the Champions League in 2021, while Manchester City’s success two years later also earned them a spot – although 2025 Premier League champions Liverpool and Champions League semi-finalists Arsenal have not made the cut.

Needless to say, the European teams are packed full of former Premier League players.

Numerous former Chelsea players will be there – including Thibaut Courtois and Antonio Rudiger at Real Madrid and Cesar Azpilicueta at Atletico Madrid, whose squad also includes Argentina striker Julian Alvarez, who moved from Manchester City in a deal worth £81.5m last summer.

Former Manchester United duo Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Matteo Darmian are now at Inter Milan, Angel di Maria plays for Benfica and fellow midfielder Marcel Sabitzer is at Borussia Dortmund, with former Brighton midfielder Pascal Gross among their other options – although ex-Liverpool man Emre Can misses out because of an adductor injury.

New Dortmund signing from Sunderland, Jobe Bellingham, has been included in their squad, along with Chelsea loanee Carney Chukwuemeka.

Further afield, there will be plenty of names which will be familiar to British-based football fans.

Manchester United supporters may well be interested in the progress of Argentine side Boca Juniors, whose squad includes ex-United quartet Sergio Romero, Marcos Rojo, Ander Herrera and Edinson Cavani, while left-back Alex Telles is now at Brazil’s Botafogo and right-back Guillermo Varela at another Brazilian side in Flamengo.

Former Chelsea captain Thiago Silva is also back playing in his homeland, for Fluminense, and West Ham supporters will be keen to see how former Hammers Felipe Anderson and Manuel Lanzini get on at Palmeiras and River Plate respectively.

Striker Salomon Rondon, who represented West Brom, Newcastle and Everton in his time in England, is at Mexican outfit Pachuca and winger Ryan Kent is now at American side Seattle Sounders after a career that has taken him to Liverpool, Coventry, Barnsley, Bristol City and Rangers.

While the tournament will include Messi and Mbappe, there will be no Cristiano Ronaldo as there is only one team from Saudi Arabia and that is Al-Hilal, who won the 2021 AFC Champions League.

Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr team would still have qualified had they won that tournament in 2023-24, but lost in the quarter-finals.