At +400 odds, Real Madrid are the favorites to win the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup on DraftKings Sportsbook. For a breakdown of the full field and odds for every team, check out my article here.
They had a down season for their standards in 2024/25, culminating in no domestic trophies, and a Champions League exit in the quarter-finals stage.
That resulted in the exit of manager Carlo Ancelotti, and in comes former Bayern Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso to replace him. Alonso, a former Real Madrid player, led Leverkusen to a historic unbeaten season in the 2023/24 Bundesliga. He has always been in line for the job, and on May 25th the club made it official.
Alonso is not the only new face in the building before this Club World Cup, RB Trent Alexander-Arnold was signed after his contract expired at Liverpool and will be in the squad for this tournament. Former Bournemouth CB Dean Huijsen has also been acquired before the start of the tournament and is in the squad.
It will be interesting to see how quickly these new pieces can fit into place, as well as Alonso’s new playing style. Alonso will likely implement a more modern approach for Madrid, with a focus on ball possession. The forward line will remain the same, with the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham tasked with scoring the goals. Not bad.
Regardless of what tactics or formations are in place, Madrid have the individuals to beat any team in the world. Although things didn’t go to plan last season, they still finished second in one of the best leagues in the world and only four points off top spot.
A fresh manager bounce could very well be in order, and what better time for it to be than at the start of a fresh season with a chance for silverware.
Los Blancos are in Group H along with Al Hilal, Pachuca, and RB Salzburg. They will fancy their chances of winning that group fairly easily, and then things should start to get a bit trickier in the Round of 16. I’m not sure if they can go all the way with their new coach only hired a few weeks before the tournament, but I would be shocked if they didn’t make it to at least the semi-finals given their quality compared to most of the teams in this tournament.
