The competition was organized by the Racing Club de Paris in celebration of its 25th anniversary.[8] Real Madrid were invited to participate in the competition as 1955–56 European Cup champions, and accepted a few days before winning the 1956–57 edition. Vasco da Gama's participation took place in the midst of the club's tour of the US and Europe, with several European newspapers citing Vasco as "Brazilian champion of 1956" for having won the 1956 Campeonato Carioca (there was no national competition at the time).[9][10] Furthermore, Vasco held the title of South American champion after winning the 1948 South American Championship of Champions and no other South American tournament of the same proportion had taken place until the 1960 Copa Libertadores.[11] Finally, Rot-Weiss Essen, the German champions at the time were invited, as Germany was the current champion of the FIFA World Cup.[11]
In a video report from Les Actualités Françaises, published on 19 June 1957 with narrated images of the match, cites the match between Vasco da Gama and Real Madrid in the final as the confrontation between "the best team in South America and the European champion".[14][15]
After the final between Vasco da Gama and Real Madrid, the French newspaper L'Équipe wrote: "And then, suddenly, Real literally disappeared. Would it be the pale red shirts or the sad blue shorts that weakened the superb Spanish team? No. Rather, the wonderful bodies suddenly appeared on the other side, wrapped tightly in white shirts with a black stripe, of 11 football athletes, of 11 black devils who took control of the ball and never let go. During the next half hour the incredible, prodigious impression one had was that the great Real Madrid champion of Europe, the untouchable Real winner of all European constellations was learning to play football".[11] The newspaper France Soir stated after the tournament: "Real Madrid is not the greatest team in the world. Talk to Vasco da Gama about that",[16] and the Jornal dos Sports cited Vasco as "world champions".[17] The Spanish newspaper ABC de Madrid wrote that "Real Madrid were no longer invincible".[18]
According to the Brazilian newspaper Tribuna de Imprensa, the tournament inspired FIFA president João Havelange and European Cup co-founder Jacques Ferran to create the Intercontinental Cup.[19] In 2023, FIFA recognized as "the most notable meeting between teams from two continents meeting before 1960".[20]
Racing Paris
Real Madrid
Rot-Weiss Essen
Vasco da Gama
Elek Schwartz
