Legend Avram Grant Sees Potential for Player Growth in Club World Cup

The summer of 2025 presents a unique moment in club world football as FIFA introduces a revamped and far more prestigious version of the Club World Cup. While the tournament has mostly been an afterthought in years gone by, this version not only revitalizes the concept but also presents an interesting opportunity for player growth.

Legendary manager and sporting director Avram Grant knows just how important development is but also how the Club World Cup can be an asset towards a team’s overall goals. Currently the manager of the Zambian national team, Grant has experience across the globe as a steward of major clubs like Chelsea FC and and West Ham United. His knowledge of both the international and domestic game makes him especially capable of helping with the understanding of competitive player growth.

“It’s a big challenge,” said Grant when asked about the difficulties in integrating players from across the globe into a singular football philosophy. “The clubs I was coaching had players that came from more than 10 countries, different continents, different cultures, different education in football. You put them together for one target: To win games.”

Grant knows about winning. After the departure of Jose Mourinho from Chelsea in 2007, Grant helmed the club to their first ever UEFA Champions League final against Manchester United. That club in particular was an eclectic mix of Spanish, English, Portuguese, Dutch and Brazilian players, just to name a few. Despite not having control over players that came in or out of the club, Grant was able to mesh all of those styles into a cohesive message that saw Chelsea defeat Olympiacos, Fenerbache and finally Liverpool before succumbing to one of Alex Ferguson’s dominant Manchester United squads.

While some may attribute Grant’s success to the spending power of Chelsea during that era, much of it has to do with sharpening the strategic will of the team through one of the most revered club competitions in Europe. Now, the FIFA Club World Cup is hoping to provide that same level of competition for more than just the 36 teams that qualify on the continent.

“Football is the international language. Everybody speaks in the same language. I was in clubs where players came from here or there or everywhere, more than 10 countries. Even countries that didn’t have relationships with themselves. They worked together very well.

“Our job as a coach is to put everyone together. Put the right tactics that everybody will understand, even if you come from different backgrounds, cultures and education because football is the only international language in the world.”

That international language will be put to the ultimate test in the summer as many of the clubs will have just completed exhausting league and cup campaigns. For Major League Soccer and Liga MX on this continent, they will still be in the regular season and even beginning their own version of a cup competition with the Leagues Cup in late July.

One of the criticisms of the FIFA Club World Cup has been fixture congestion and whether or not players will get enough rest. As Grant knows from being a high level coach, rotation is key to success in such a competition. While the superstars like Killian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal are important for bringing in fans, the players around them and behind them are just as important towards success in the competition.

“Even though football is international, you see a difference between the football in Africa, the football in Asia and the football in Europe. Even in England, it’s English football but in every club there’s no more than three or four English players. The style of the game, the dynamics of the teams in the Premier League stay the same.

“This tournament, where the clubs play together, will help them to be better. To show also that they (other nation’s clubs) have something to show. But even at the clubs you will see the difference between the continents.”

The FIFA Club World Cup kicks off on June 14th when Inter Miami, representing Concacaf, will play Al Ahly in the game’s opening match at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. Al Ahly won the CAF Champions League in 2021, 2023 and 2024 while Inter Miami are the reigning Supporters Shield holders for 2024. Other teams to participate will include Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Chelsea, Seattle Sounders, River Plate, Boca Juniors and others.