Can Lionel Messi, Inter Miami really spring a surprise at Club World Cup?

The Club World Cup will take Inter Miami from start-up to the global stage.

Just five years after its MLS debut, the team co-owned by David Beckham and starring Lionel Messi will have the eyes of the world on it as it kicks off soccer's newest competition with the chance to be crowned world champion.

It's been a wild ride.

"This is a competition that will let us see where we are standing as a team," coach Javier Mascherano said Friday as Miami enters the unknown in a competition featuring 32 of the best teams from around the globe. "No one expects us to go far, but this should be an advantage. We don’t have that in our national league when people expect Miami to be the winning team."

[MORE: 2025 FIFA Club World Cup Schedule: Dates, times for every match ]

Up first for Miami at the Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday is Africa's most successful team — Al Ahly from Egypt, which has won a record 12 African championships.

When it comes to winning heritage, there is no competition. Al Ahly, founded in 1907, has won a record 45 national league titles and 39 domestic cups — another record. It qualified for the Club World Cup three times over by winning three of the last four African Champions League titles.

Miami, meanwhile, is taking part in the tournament by more questionable means. Its place was secured as a result of winning the MLS Supporters' Shield, a decision that was greeted with some surprise when announced by FIFA president Gianni Infantino last year, and looked even more curious when Miami failed to go on and lift the MLS Cup that season.

A tournament devised to determine the best team in the world by largely bringing together continental champions managed to shoehorn in a team that hadn't even managed to win its