JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — In the historic centre of Jeddah, in the old heart of the city, there’s a football pitch. It isn’t much: an uneven, astroturf surface, and two undersized goals. There are floodlights, and white lines painted on the ground, but no seats for spectators. It’s surrounded by crumbling walls, half-abandoned buildings, and a few palm trees. This is football, like it’s always been, everywhere.

But the game has changed. The 2034 FIFA World Cup is coming. Cristiano Ronaldo plays here in the Saudi Pro League, and so does Karim Benzema, at Jeddah’s Al Ittihad. And 20 miles to the north of that pitch — an hour’s drive on a good day for traffic — there’s another: inside the 62,000 capacity Al Jawhara Stadium, in King Abdullah Sports City, the venue for the 2025 Spanish Supercopa.

A football pitch in Jeddah. But not the one where tonight’s Clásico was played. Piece on the Supercopa coming up for @ESPNFC… pic.twitter.com/QNTSFRX9In

— Alex Kirkland (@alexkirkland) January 12, 2025

This tournament has been held in Saudi Arabia since 2020 — with a year off for the pandemic — switching between Jeddah and the capital, Riyadh. Its latest iteration pits last season’s top two LaLiga finishers and Copa del Rey finalists against each other in a “final four.” A contract signed until 2029 is worth around €40 million a year to the Spanish football federation (RFEF). Half of that goes to the clubs.

Everybody here, except the fans of the other two teams involved, wants a Real Madrid–Barcelona final. It’s the revamped tournament’s raison d’etre: bringing a competitive Clásico, with a trophy at stake, to Saudi Arabia, with all of the attention — and profit — that generates.

“Are you going to the game?” a luggage handler at Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport asked, excited. “I hope it will be Real Madrid vs. Barcelona. It would be a beautiful final.”

And it was, the third Clásico Supercopa final in a row, after Barça’s 3-1 win in 2023 and Madrid’s 4-1 victory in 2024. Sunday’s 5-2 win for Barcelona had everything. Seven goals. A penalty. A red card. These games are inherently unpredictable, Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti had explained a day earlier.

“Quality prevails,” Ancelotti said. “There’s so much individual quality that it overcomes the collective, which is above all in defence.”

As it turned out, it wasn’t a bad summary. Individual quality? For Barcelona, that meant Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, and Robert Lewandowski. For Madrid: Kylian Mbappé, Jude Bellingham, Vinícius Júnior.

Defending? Not so much.

The lapses from both teams only added to the drama. Barcelona had two chances to score in the first five minutes alone, Thibaut Courtois saving Yamal’s curling shot and then Raphinha’s header. But less than a minute later, Madrid went ahead on the counter-attack, Mbappé sprinting from the halfway line, twisting Alejandro Balde in knots before shooting across goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.

Mbappé’s first Clásico, in LaLiga in October, was a misfire: Madrid lost 4-0 and Mbappé experienced a mini-crisis of faith, caught a record eight times by Barcelona’s ruthlessly tight offside trap. Here, his confidence was high. Madrid have played three finals this season: the UEFA Super Cup, the FIFA Intercontinental Cup and the Spanish Supercopa. Mbappé has scored in all of them. Soon he was brushing off challenges, Ronaldo Nazario style, before being brought down, hurting his ankle.

But Barcelona’s dominance of possession was already striking, with 83% of the ball in the first 20 minutes. And it wasn’t long before they were level, a quick passing move ending with Lewandowski playing in Yamal, who did what he does — cutting inside, Lionel Messi-like, and finishing left-footed past Courtois. The goals kept coming. In the 35th minute, a penalty to Barça, awarded after a VAR check found Eduardo Camavinga had caught Gavi with his studs. Lewandowski scored to make it 2-1.

This was already exactly the spectacle the federation and the Saudis wanted, the two biggest clubs in the world going toe-to-toe. But then Barcelona found another gear, and Real Madrid collapsed.

“They scored the goals easily,” Ancelotti said afterwards. “We lost a lot of duels … I don’t have to name anyone, I’m talking about the whole team, we didn’t defend well.”

There were two more Barcelona goals before half-time, Raphinha powering a header past Courtois, and Balde scoring in the last of nine added minutes. It was 4-1, and on the Barcelona bench, the substitutes and staff were leaping into the air in joyous celebration. Ancelotti made changes, bringing on Dani Ceballos for Camavinga — who had been yellow carded — and Rodrygo gave Madrid hope, hitting the crossbar from an offside position. But a minute later, Raphinha had scored again. 5-1.

The Real Madrid fans inside the stadium sat in stunned silence. Barcelona’s could barely believe what was happening, either. The game was over as a contest, but still, the action kept coming. Mbappé went past Szczesny and was brought down on the edge of the box, the keeper sent off, Barça down to 10 men. Rodrygo converted the free kick. There was even time for Dani Olmo — whose availability for the tournament was in doubt until Spain’s sports ministry (the CSD) ruled that he should be temporarily re-registered as a Barça player — to play the last half hour. By the final whistle, many of the Madrid fans had already left their seats and headed for the exits.

Barcelona’s 5-2 win is emblematic of a season defined so far by its uncertainty. Barça looked unstoppable early on, leading the way in LaLiga; then their form fell apart, as Madrid slowly found themselves, and Bellingham started scoring. But Barça haven’t always been played badly in defeat, and Madrid often haven’t convinced in victory. And right now, neither team is on top of LaLiga anyway, at the season’s midpoint: that’s Atletico Madrid, who quietly beat Osasuna 1-0 in the league on Sunday.

What happens in the second half of the season is anyone’s guess, but this was a triumphant night of rebirth for Barcelona, coach Hansi Flick and his players, and a major blow for Madrid, who don’t lose many finals, certainly not conceding five goals.

And it was a very good night for the Spanish football federation. Selling a product like this is easy.

“For us [Saudis], football belongs to two countries: Brazil, and Spain,” Fahad, a driver and security guard, told me before the game. It’s illustrious company. After winning Euro 2024, Spain is back, the image of the national team restored. After this Supercopa, so are Barcelona.