Chelsea beats PSG to close out controversial 2025 FIFA Club World Cup

Chelsea FC beat Paris Saint-Germain, 3-0, in East Rutherford, N.J. to take home the 2025 Club World Cup. It's Chelsea's second straight international tournament victory this season after winning the UEFA Conference League in May.

The MetLife Stadium announcer teed up the game like a boxing match, reading off each team's vitals like those of a prize fighter as they walked out into the sun. In the blue corner, Chelsea FC from the banks of the Thames, born in 1905. In the red corner, Paris Saint-Germain from the banks of the Seine, born in 1970.

It was a cute, if hackneyed, way to add a little American flair to the proceedings, but it missed out on a key stat: the financial backers behind each club making their appearances in this moneyed final possible. It was a telling oversight. 

With no history, no rivalry and no real motivation between the two competitors, this Club World Cup final was less about Chelsea and PSG and more about the financial instruments that got them there. In the blue corner, Team Private Equity. In the red corner, Team Sovereign Wealth. Whose side are you on?

That's been the story of this Club World Cup, the unfortunate reality of FIFA president Gianni Infantino's stab at a global Champions League offering nearly twice the prize money of the original but a fraction of the charm. It's never been about the soccer, it's always been about the cash.

Infantino admitted as much when he, prior to the final, declared the tournament a success — not for its on-field product, but for its unprecedented off-field revenue generation.

For those watching for the soccer, though, Chelsea's swashbuckling, utterly dominant performance in this Club World Cup final was the stuff of legend. PSG entered the match in nigh unbeatable form, having scored 16 goals and conceded just one since winning the UEFA Champions League Final, 5-0, over Inter Milan in May. PSG won every tournament it entered in the 2024-25 season — and looked primed to win this Club World Cup, too — until Chelsea turned on the style and flipped the script.

The London club wasted no time, sprinting down PSG's flanks from the opening kick and bringing a barreling sense of urgency to the field. PSG's wing backs, Moroccan international Achraf Hakimi and Portuguese international Nuno Mendes, tend to be its key playmakers, but Chelsea pinned them back early, forcing both to deal with a near-constant assault of forward passes. 

Without Hakimi and Mendes's runs, PSG was forced to create more movement through its center, and that opened up space for Chelsea to run into as it charged PSG's goal. 

The dam broke early, with Chelsea's Cole Palmer scoring in the 22nd minute. He found his second of the afternoon just eight minutes later, and his new teammate Joao Pedro made it three just after halftime.