“It doesn’t make sense for Brazil to try to compete with European clubs in terms of finances,” Fluminense coach Renato Gaúcho said through a translator. “Brazilian clubs trade players and sell them to Europe so they can survive, and that’s been true even since I was a player.”

João Pedro was a Brighton striker. Last decade, he spent eight years in the youth academy at Fluminense. On Tuesday, he beat Fluminense in a Club World Cup semifinal playing for Chelsea.

Rare is the day a player earns a first start for their new team in the semifinal of a competition despite being under contract with an entirely different club during the group stage, but leave it to the new-look Club World Cup to shoehorn a new quirk into the structured soccer calendar.