Fluminense the beauty of football

Exciting adventures and fairy tales are the specialties of the World Cup. And in that sense, the FIFA Club World Cup, painstakingly conceived by FIFA, is truly taking on the appearance of a world football festival.

Thiago Silva (striped shirt, right) and goalkeeper Fabio are veterans over 40 years old who made a big impression in the tournament - Photo: REUTERS

That fairy tale is about Fluminense - the "poor" football team of Brazil.

The weakest in the group of Brazilian giants

To be precise, there are no poor teams at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, except for New Zealand's amateur team Auckland City. All four Brazilian representatives in the tournament, Fluminense, Flamengo, Botafogo and Palmeiras, have won the Copa Libertadores (Europe's equivalent of the Champions League) in the past four years. There is no way that a team with poor potential can win the "South American C1".

But among them, Fluminense claims to be the poorest team. In the 2025 season, Fluminense's total salary budget is about 23.4 million USD/year, equivalent to 449,907 USD/week. This figure is much lower than Botafogo ($32 million), Palmeiras ($38.49 million/year) and Flamengo ($51.39 million/year).

Of the four Brazilian teams, Fluminense also has the lowest revenue ($126 million) and the lowest squad value ($102 million). The other three Brazilian teams all have double or triple the corresponding figures of Fluminense. And compared to the powerful European teams, Fluminense is even smaller. Chelsea, Fluminense's opponent in the semi-finals, has a salary budget of up to $240 million, 10 times more, and a squad value of up to 14 times more ($1.4 billion).

Success with old men

Not possessing huge financial resources to buy stars, Fluminense focuses on upgrading the squad through smart recruitment. Developing young players and recruiting old but still useful stars.

Thiago Silva is the symbol of that success. In the summer of 2024, the Brazilian midfielder returned to play in his homeland after his contract with Chelsea expired. Fluminense did not have to work hard to convince Thiago Silva, who grew up in the team's training academy.

But it is worth mentioning that Fluminense only has to spend a very low amount of money to pay Thiago Silva's salary, only 27,000 USD/week, or 1.4 million USD/year. It is worth noting that Thiago Silva has always received a salary higher than 6 million USD for 15 consecutive years of his career before that.

Thiago Silva makes the whole tournament bow down - Photo: Reuters

And what the former Brazilian captain did in the United States this summer was truly historic. Thiago Silva made the whole tournament bow to his amazing endurance.

With the exception of the match against Sundowns at the end of the group stage, when he was given a rest, Thiago Silva played the remaining four matches, helping his team keep clean sheets against Dortmund and Inter Milan. At times, fans thought they were watching the Thiago Silva of 10 years ago.

That is also Fabio - the goalkeeper who holds the record for the most clean sheets in football. Fabio is not an international star like Thiago Silva, he has only played football in his country all his life. The reason Fabio broke Gianluigi Buffon's proud record is simply because his career is too "long". Fabio will celebrate his 45th birthday next September, and has played professional football for 28 years.

Fluminense's current squad has almost no Brazilian football stars. Their most valuable player is a Colombian - Jhon Arias (worth 17 million euros according to Transfermarkt).

The fairy tale of Fluminense has a great meaning, it symbolizes the original beauty of Brazilian football, that any player from the land of samba can make the football world crazy.

Great benefit

Despite their financial weakness, Fluminense will benefit greatly from their deep run in the Club World Cup. According to NBC Sports, the Brazilian team will receive at least $61 million in bonuses for reaching the semi-finals. If they beat Chelsea, that bonus will increase to $91 million, and will increase to $131 million if they win the tournament.

Is it a dream? Maybe, but for a team that has held Dortmund to a draw, beaten Inter Milan and cracked the Al Hilal phenomenon, it is no exaggeration to talk about the title now.

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HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/fluminense-net-dep-cua-bong-da-20250705231538855.htm