Three Finals and a Night in New Jersey: Arab Clubs at the Club World Cup

For most of its life the Club World Cup was treated, in Europe, as an inconvenience. A midwinter trip to collect a trophy nobody displayed prominently. Ask a European supporter to name their club's Club World Cup wins and watch the pause.

Ask that question in Casablanca, Al Ain or Riyadh and you get an immediate, detailed answer, usually with the date. That gap in how the tournament is valued is the whole story of Arab clubs at this competition. For them it was never a chore. It was the only fixture on earth where they got to find out, definitively, how far the distance really was.

Three times, an Arab club walked out for the final. Each time the answer was different.

Raja Casablanca, 2013: the tournament nobody predicted

Morocco hosted, and Raja qualified as the host-nation representative, which meant they entered at the play-off round with the longest possible route and the least possible respect. Nobody outside Morocco filled in their name past the first game.

They beat Auckland City. Then they beat Monterrey. Then, in the semi-final, they beat Atlético Mineiro, the reigning champions of South America, and Casablanca lost its mind.

The final against Bayern Munich was, in cold terms, a mismatch. This was the Bayern of the treble, arguably the best club side on the planet at that moment, and they won 2-0. But look at the scoreline again. Two goals. Raja had gone from a qualifying play-off to holding the European champions to two, in front of their own people, having eliminated a Copa Libertadores winner on the way.

A generation of North African supporters date their belief that Arab clubs belong at that level to that fortnight.

Al Ain, 2018: hosts again, final again

Five years later the pattern repeated in the UAE. Al Ain came in as hosts, went through a play-off, and then did something genuinely absurd: they knocked out River Plate, the Libertadores champions, on penalties in the semi-final.

The final was Real Madrid, and Madrid won 4-1. Again the gap was real and the achievement was too. Two Arab clubs, two host nations, two Libertadores winners eliminated. Whatever the "Arab clubs can't compete" argument was resting on, it was not the evidence.

Al Hilal, 2022: the closest anyone came

This is the one that hurts, and the one worth studying.

Al Hilal arrived in Morocco in February 2023 as Asian champions, not as hosts, which mattered. They beat Wydad Casablanca and then Flamengo, the Libertadores holders, to reach the final. Third Arab finalist, third South American champion eliminated by an Arab club.

Then Real Madrid, and a 5-3 defeat that reads like a typo. Al Hilal scored three goals against a Real Madrid side featuring Benzema, Vinícius and Modrić, and were in the game deep into the second half. It is the highest-scoring Club World Cup final ever played and the only one where an Arab club genuinely traded blows rather than absorbed them.

Losing 5-3 stings more than losing 4-1, because 5-3 means it was available.

Al Ahly, and the value of always being there

While those three reached finals, Al Ahly built a different kind of record: they kept showing up, and kept finishing on the podium. Third in 2006. Third in 2020, after beating Palmeiras on penalties. Third again in 2021, beating Al Hilal in an all-Arab bronze match that deserved a bigger stage than it got.

No Arab club has appeared at this tournament more often. That consistency is its own argument. Finals need a run of form; repeated qualification needs an institution.

2025: the summer the format changed and Al Hilal took advantage

Then FIFA blew the tournament up into a 32-team competition in the United States, and the calculus changed completely. Group stages. Multiple games. Room for an upset to be a campaign rather than a one-off.

Al Ahly opened the whole tournament against Inter Miami and drew 0-0, which set the tone: these were not exhibition matches.

And then Al Hilal beat Manchester City 4-3 in the round of 16.

Take a moment with that. Manchester City, the reigning European heavyweight of the era, out, in extra time, to a Saudi club. It was not a smash-and-grab either; Al Hilal scored four times. They went on to the quarter-finals before Fluminense ended it.

Every previous entry in this article is a story about an Arab club exceeding expectations against a superior opponent. The City result was different in kind. It was an Arab club beating one of the best teams in the world in a knockout tie, over 120 minutes, on merit.

What the record actually says

Add it up: three finals, four Copa Libertadores champions eliminated, a Manchester City knocked out, and a bronze-medal habit from Cairo. The pattern is not "plucky underdogs occasionally hang on". It is that Arab clubs have beaten South America's best repeatedly and Europe's best occasionally, and the only consistent barrier has been the very top of the European game on a single night.

That barrier is lower now than it was in 2013. Whether it falls next is the most interesting question in Arab club football.

KickD covers the AFC Champions League, the Saudi Pro League, the Egyptian Premier League and the Jordan League all season, in English and Arabic.

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