Ahead of the Club World Cup final, 100 members from official Chelsea Supporters’ Clubs across the globe travelled to Dubai where they were hosted on a rooftop venue in the Middle Eastern city, with the event taking place alongside the highest infinity pool in the world, 75 stories up in the SLS tower and surrounded by the spectacular and ever-developing Dubai skyline.

The Champions League trophy had made the journey there too, from neighbouring Abu Dhabi where the matches were played, as had Chelsea legend and our current technical and performance advisor Petr Cech.

It seemed somewhat appropriate that while our towering stellar goalkeeper of many a past Chelsea triumph was speaking to the fans, the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, was in the near background performing its eye-catching laser and LED display.

Cech answered questions from the supporters who were from the UK, Colombia, Belarus, New York, India, Copenhagen, Egypt, Pakistan, Nepal, Poland, Russia and Zimbabwe, plus there were some local fans – truly worldwide Blues!He spoke about the tournament so far and the value of the Blues supporters who are in the stadium, and also about his own experiences of playing in the Club World Cup in 2012.

That year also came up when Cech was asked about the momentous penalty shoot-out in Munich and saving from his friend Arjen Robben earlier in that Champions League final, something he was happy to talk about although he admitted how nerve-wrackingly unenjoyable it is to be involved in such a high-profile game.

He also recounted how he missed the peak celebrations in Munich due to being selected for the routine post-match doping test.

‘When everybody was celebrating in the dressing room, I was sitting on my own with [Bayern striker] Mario Gomez in the doping room,' he recalled.

'I heard all the great stories about Mr. Abramovich making a speech and Didier talking to the cup, and by the way cups never reply, and then when I came to the hotel everybody was so tired already that my celebration was very easy. I just sat down and I have to say I was exhausted as well.’

Amusingly, our former keeper was quizzed on whether Thomas Tuchel would make it out in time for Chelsea’s latest cup final, pretty much at the exact moment our head coach was touching down in Abu Dhabi.

Cech was also keen to emphasis how much Chelsea has grown globally since he first joined in 2004 and he thanked that widespread love for the club, before the question came up on which goalkeeper would play this Club World Cup final.

It was one he could not answer directly as he explained no one except Tuchel knew the starting 11 until the team meeting the next day. ‘We are happy with both of Edou and Kepa,’ Cech added. ‘Obviously the coach will decide but we can be pretty relaxed about that because we trust both.’

As we all know now, the choice was Mendy who had a relatively quiet game with three shots on target faced across the 120 minutes although had it not been for Kai Havertz’s late winner, Kepa might have seen action too in a penalty shoot-out.

Covid restrictions meant selfies and autographs were off the agenda at this fan event, but all who attended were able to have a photo with the Champions League trophy. It was just a little too early for the FIFA Club World Cup trophy to be there too!

A raffle, with player-signed shirts the prizes, concluded the evening, with the lucky winners no doubt departing hoping the Chelsea star who had signed theirs would be the man of the match when they watched the big match in Abu Dhabi the next day.