Manchester City spends big to cash in on Club World Cup

Can there be too much football? The inaugural Fifa Club World Cup, kicking off this weekend, puts that question into practice. A long English Premier League season saw many teams crawl over the line, in desperate need of a summer’s rest. That included Manchester City, the fallen champions, who needed a final-day win at Fulham to qualify for the Champions League.

While Liverpool, Napoli and Barcelona, champions of England, Italy and Spain, are absent from the tourney in the United States, Manchester City take their place. Pep Guardiola, like Paris Saint-Germain coach and former teammate Luis Enrique, has been notable about his ambitions to win the new trophy.

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