Gini Wijnaldum on the Club World Cup: 'We want to make history'
Georginio Wijnaldum is motivated by the prospect of making history at the FIFA Club World Cup.
Liverpool will travel to Qatar in December to participate in the tournament that pits together the champions of each of the global governing body’s six confederations, with their semi-final match scheduled to take place one month from today.
The Reds have never won the competition and lost to Sao Paulo in the final of their most recent campaign back in 2005.
As such, Jürgen Klopp’s Champions League winners have the opportunity to achieve a feat never before accomplished in their club’s history - and Wijnaldum has detailed the squad’s determination to do just that.
Liverpoolfc.com caught up with the midfielder at Melwood recently to discuss all things Club World Cup. Read on to find out what he had to say…
On his anticipation for the tournament…
I’m really looking forward to playing in the World Cup for teams because back in the day I saw the Champions League winners play in the competition. What I like the most is that if you win, you get a badge on your shirt. That’s something you want to achieve.
On facing teams from different places…
That makes the World Cup so beautiful - because you play against other teams from other parts of the world. You would never see them in competition, only pre-season. It’s nice to compete with those teams and see how they do it. I’m looking forward to that.
On the importance of Liverpool maintaining a winning mentality…
It’s really important because it gives you a lot of confidence. When you are losing games, pressure will come on the team; when you win games, instead of pressure, confidence will come. It’s always important to win games, or even play good games, because that will help you get more confidence.
On appearances at the Club World Cup being rare…
That’s what makes this competition so special. First of all, it’s really difficult to qualify for a tournament like this. Second of all, you play against other teams who also had to do a lot of work to come into this competition. That’s why we have to enjoy it the most - because you never know if it’s going to be your last time in a competition like this. And, on the other side, if you want to play in this competition as much as possible you need to win the Champions League. It also gives you something in the Champions League. If you win the Champions League trophy you can play the World Cup for teams, so it also gives you another reason to want to win the Champions League.
On the fact Liverpool have never won the competition…
You go into football to make history and that’s what we want to achieve with the team we’re playing in. We have a good team. We are friends, we work hard for each other. We have a team that when we look back later we can say we achieved things. This will definitely be one of the moments when we look back, we can say we achieved something big.
On the motivation to be the first Club World Cup-winning Reds side…
Yes, because when you look back we will always say, ‘We won it the first time’. If we win it then our names will come forward. It would be a nice thing for us but also for the people who will look at the history later and see that we won it.
LFC CEO Peter Moore on Reds' participation
On the prospect of wearing the gold champions badge…
I saw it on a few shirts of the previous winners. Also, when I speak about the tournament with family and friends, they all speak about the badge. That’s something you want; every time you look at the shirt it reminds you that you won the World Cup for teams.