The Club World Cup, the final of the 2024/25 football season, is only just ready, but there are already thoughts for the next campaign.
Throughout Europe, teams have already started their preparations for the preseason for 2025/26 with signing sessions that arrive at their new clubs and forecast sessions. But for the teams that went far in the World Cup club, this is the start of a short low season.
How will the will of Chelsea, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain succeed in preparing their teams for the new season, one that culminates in the World Cup in June? It is a question that many ask, including Bayern Munich and Germany legend Philipe Lahm.
Lahm won eight Bundesliga titles, one Champions League and a World Cup in the course of his great career and he is all too well aware of the toll who places a busy calendar on players and their teams.
Lahm wrote in the athletics: “Almost all elite clubs in Europe are back in the training for the season, but players involved in the final rounds of the club World Cup are now, rightly, on the way to weeks of vacation. When the season starts, those teams will all be in a venadeing, perhaps for months.”
Apart from the simple planning problems, the draining temperatures at this summer's club will have been particularly difficult for players. FIFA attempts to relieve the circumstances – with hydration breaks and larger squadrons – but the decision to play a few games at 3 p.m. at the height of the summer has been simply criticized. Changes must be made prior to next year's World Cup to prevent a repetition.
Lahm explained: “I played in heat before and it is very uncomfortable – physically and mentally. People have to listen to how the players describe their experiences.”