Garriga: Club World Cup is a fantastic opportunity for Auckland

An incredible journey has taken Gerard Garriga from working in a bar to rubbing shoulders with the world’s best at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025.

• Auckland City are Oceania’s sole representative at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025

• Midfielder Gerard Garriga is aiming to star for the Navy Blues in the States

• The Spaniard is hoping to face off against Inter Miami at the competition

In September 2017, Gerard Garriga could never have imagined how his life would change over the course of the next eight years.

What began as an adventure of a few months travelling around Aotearoa New Zealand to learn English, have a change of scenery and recharge his batteries saw his footballing career take a drastic detour, with the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 now the Spaniard’s next challenge with national powerhouses Auckland City.

From cleaning houses and working in a bar, he is now facing the prospect of going up against the likes of Erling Haaland, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, among other household names. Ahead of finding out who their opponents will be in Thursday’s draw in Miami, Garriga discusses what the upcoming Club World Cup adventure.

Gerard Garriga: I was in Spain and I was lucky enough that the club I was at, Atletic Alpicat, had an old team-mate who decided to go to New Zealand. He had a friend there and he wanted to have some time off, take a sabbatical, and he decided to bite the bullet and go to New Zealand. I remember thinking to myself when he told me he was going that it would be an incredible experience. To leave everything behind and move to the other side of the world. He had only been there for a few months and he said to me “you’ve got to get yourself here, you’ll absolutely love it.”

That really got me thinking about my future. He left in February and I booked my flights in the summer for me to arrive in New Zealand in September 2017. My plan was to stick around for around three to six months to learn English and then go back to Spain to find a job as a teacher, which is my profession.

I got there, everything was fantastic, I travelled around a lot, I visited many different places and met a lot people. The first month was out of this world, but then my savings started to dwindle and I had to find a job. I spoke very little English. After a month and a half I found myself living in a hostel, I wasn’t travelling around anymore and everything had changed quite drastically. I started out working for a cleaning company where I was responsible for cleaning carpets, kitchens and houses. Then I started studying at an English school, my English got progressively better and in December I started working as a waiter. My English came on leaps and bounds while I was working there, it was a less physical job and my colleagues were playing in a football team. I used to go and watch them play at the weekends and then Albert [Riera] helped me find a team. Some teams showed me the door, but in February I put pen to paper with Western Springs.”

Playing for Auckland City is great, but you don’t have time to really celebrate your achievements because everyone is out to beat you and get revenge. It’s the same old story year after year. We win something, we go out and celebrate, but the next day we’re already thinking about winning the next competition we’re involved in. Of course it means a lot to us, but football doesn’t wait around for anyone and if we take our eye off the ball there will be another team waiting to pounce. We never let up and we’re constantly working hard to maintain our dominance. We’re very proud of what we’ve achieved. When I first arrived here, I couldn’t have imagined where I’d be today and what we’ve achieved along the way.

For everyone connected with the club and the continent, what we’ve already achieved by making it this far is already like winning a title. We’re under no illusion that it’s going to be very difficult, we know we’re the only non-professional team in the competition and we know we’re the underdogs. But in terms of enthusiasm and desire, nobody wants this more than us. And we’ll be playing a minimum of three games! We played one game at the FIFA Intercontinental Cup 2024™ and we really struggled to get into the game. Then we improved. Next year we’ll be better prepared and we’ll try to go out there and enjoy ourselves as much as possible. Personally, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity because we’ll get to play against European clubs that we’ve followed since we were kids. Maybe we’ll be drawn with Real Madrid or Atletico de Madrid, who I’ve been watching on TV since I was a kid. It’s something very special and we’re all looking forward to being part of it. We don’t want to go there just to make up the numbers, we want to try and make history and maybe spring a surprise or two.

I’m absolutely buzzing. Anyone who follows football knows how incredible these players are. We don’t know who we’re going to get yet. It’s something very special and I can guarantee you that anyone who loves football would love to be in our position right now. I’ve been very lucky in football because, without ever playing for a first or second division club in Spain, I’ve been able to travel and see the world thanks to football. It’s a dream come true.

Any player in our team, or in most of the teams that will be there, would say that it’s the most important moment in their career. Aside from the greats, for any player to get the chance to play at this FIFA Club World Cup with the new 32-team format is something incredible. So just imagine how it feels for us non-professional players. I wish this format of the competition had been created earlier so that we could have had the chance to play at another one, but I’m incredibly happy and can’t quite believe that I’m able to play in a tournament of this magnitude.

I’d love to get an Inter Miami shirt. The opportunity to rub shoulders with a player like Leo Messi would be out of this world, although I wouldn’t say no to swapping shirts with some of his team-mates either. But ultimately, I’d be happy to play against any European team: Manchester City, Chelsea, Bayern, Real Madrid, Atletico. It really is unbelievable to think we’ll be coming up against some of these teams! The opportunity that this tournament gives us to go head-to-head against some of the best clubs in the world and some of the best players in the world is fantastic. I also think it’s a great opportunity for us to fly the New Zealand and the Oceania flags and to represent them in the best possible way. And then if we can get Messi’s, Modric’s or any other player’s shirt at the end of the game, that would just be the icing on the cake really.