For Esteban Cambiasso and Inter Milan, the joke proved prophetic.
At the end of 2009, the Italians travelled to Abu Dhabi, choosing the UAE capital as a training base during Serie A’s winter break. There, they honed their fitness in the Middle East sun, even contesting a couple of low-key friendlies.
Inter missed Barcelona by around one week, since the Spanish giants had just departed Abu Dhabi with the Fifa Club World Cup trophy, a record sixth title in a calendar year.
Touching down days later, and knowing the continental competition would return to the Emirates the following year, Inter's players quipped that they would be back 12 months from then, doing what Barcelona had done.
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"We arrived in Abu Dhabi five or 10 days after Barcelona and Estudiantes played the final," Cambiasso tells The National in Zurich, where the draw was made on Tuesday for this year's Club World Cup, again staged in the UAE. "We joked that 'next year we will be here. But in the good date, not only for friendly matches'. And after one year we arrived. So it was a good situation."
It ended up being a good tournament for Inter, too. They won both their matches to lift the Club World Cup for the first time under its current guise - the Milan side had twice won the old Intercontinental Cup, in 1964 and 1965 - defeating South Korea’s Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma in the semis and then DR Congo’s TP Mazembe in the final.
Given previous iterations, Inter were expected to face Brazil’s Internacional for the title. But Mazembe shocked the Porto Alegre side in the last four to become the first team from outside Europe or South America to contest the showpiece.
“Nobody in that moment expected us to play an African team in the final," Cambiasso says. “It was strange because all the people usually arrive with the European and South American teams. And there were a lot of Internacional supporters, but they lost the semi-final.
"OK, we know a surprise in the final can happen, but everyone outside football thinks the matches are easy. So to win was one great memory for us, because nothing is done until you do it.”
Even though they were heavy favourites going into the match at Zayed Sports City, Inter still felt the pressure to perform.
“When you play in Inter Milan you have a lot of pressure always,” says Cambiasso, who signed from Real Madrid in 2004 and went on to represent the Italians for 10 years, collecting 15 major titles. “In any match - friendly, a final, the local championship, the European championship, the Club World Cup final - it’s the same.
“You have to live with and you have to embrace this pressure. It doesn’t depend on the opponent. When you play in one club like that, or like Real Madrid, you know the obligation is always to try and win. It doesn’t change depending on one or another opponent.”
Asked for his highlight of that Abu Dhabi run, Cambiasso smiles before offering a predictable answer: “The final. You have the best memory when you have the trophy in your hand. And I remember, one big friend of ours and teammate, Walter Samuel, was out of that moment because he ruptured his knee ligaments. So it wasn’t a very good moment for the team, but then our captain Javier Zanetti put on a Samuel t-shirt when he lifted the cup. So it was great.
“Also, our president Massimo Moratti took the trophy many, many years after his father [former Inter chairman Angelo] - 45 years before. There was a lot of memories.”
A return to Abu Dhabi in December will provide Cambiasso the chance to reminisce. The December 12-22 event features Madrid, the defending champions with whom he won the Intercontinental Cup in 2002, Mexico’s Guadalajara, Team Wellington of New Zealand and Al Ain, the UAE champions and host representatives.
Seeking a third consecutive crown, Madrid once again constitute the team to beat.
“In every competition Real Madrid play, automatically they are one of the favourites,” Cambiasso says. “But in football this is not important, or could be important before the ball starts to move. After the ball moves, there is not a favourite.
“You have to show if you are the best. Mazembe in 2010 was important for the whole competition, for everyone to understand all the clubs have the chance to arrive in the final and win the cup. I expect another strong tournament in the UAE.”
