Al Ittihad and Karim Benzema under pressure to perform at Fifa Club World Cup

Amid Saudi Arabia’s unprecedented rush for football gold this past summer, the feeling was that Al Ittihad were being rebuilt with one eye on this week.

As the kingdom’s reigning national champions, the Jeddah side make perfect hosts for the country’s first staging of the Fifa Club World Cup, the home team in the seven-club tournament that welcomes to Saudi Arabia’s second city the recent best from differing continents.

Manchester City were confirmed for the event four days after Karim Benzema signed on at Ittihad. In defeating Inter Milan in Istanbul, the European champions sealed a December date with the then-Ballon d’Or holder; they had even dispatched Benzema and Real Madrid en route to the Uefa Champions League crown.

Nevertheless, the Frenchman was soon joined in Jeddah by compatriot N’Golo Kante, a World Cup winner and hoarder of every major European club trinket, too. The most recent, in fact, was the Club World Cup with Chelsea in Abu Dhabi early last year.

Of course, other starry names swiftly followed. Fabinho, a linchpin in Liverpool’s domestic and continental success under Jurgen Klopp, and another with a Club World Cup crown.

Jota, Celtic’s enterprising winger who, unlike his three new teammates, was some way from his peak. At 24, the Portuguese was two years younger than Luiz Felipe, another Ittihad summer recruit. The Brazil-born defender, who qualifies for Italy, spent the past six years at Lazio and Real Betis.

Part of the idea, the theory goes, was to have not simply a team capable of competing at the sharp end of the rapidly burgeoning Saudi Pro League – Al Hilal, Al Nassr and Al Ahli were significantly restocked also – and in Asia.

But to represent the country with distinction at its inaugural Club