Gerard Garriga, a Spanish player on the New Zealand team, admitted they could be “the lowest ranked team” in the tournament due to the amateurism that prevails in the oceanic country.
The draw for the 2025 Club World Cup placed Boca Juniors in Group C, alongside Bayern Munich, Benfica and Auckland City. The latter team appears to be the “Cinderella” of the group, a fact that Gerard Garriga, the Spanish footballer, acknowledges by admitting that they are not even professional players.
“We would like to say that we will finish first, but we cannot fool ourselves. We may be the lowest ranked team in the tournament; we are non-professional players in an amateur league. Maybe we are the Cinderella of the tournament, but in terms of enthusiasm and ambition, no one can beat us,” Garriga said in an interview with ESPN.
Expanding on the theme of amateurism in New Zealand, the Spaniard compared the situation to professionalism in Australia and explained that, in their case, they have to work for a living: “We would like to be professional, but in New Zealand Football is not professional. In Australia, yes. Here, the players train in the afternoon, but for the rest of the day, football remains a hobby for us.”
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Without a doubt, Bayern Munich and Benfica appear as Boca’s direct competitors in the race to the round of 16 of the Club World Cup. Meanwhile, Auckland City represents a real conundrum for the Xeneizes. Not only is it a team they have never faced in their history, but it also only has 20 years of existence.
Despite their youth, the New Zealand team has earned enough merit to become one of the most representative in the region, something that their present confirms: they recently became champions of the OFC Champions League for the third time.
Incredibly, this will not be the first time Auckland have faced an Argentine representative: in 2014, during the semi-finals of the Club World Cup, they played against San Lorenzo and lost 2-1. They then defeated Cruz Azul in the third place match, completing a historic legacy.
