The first-ever

Reebok Reebok International Limited () is an American fitness footwear and clothing manufacturer that is a part of Authentic Brands Group. It was established in England in 1958 as a companion company to J.W. Foster and Sons, a sporting goods company ...

Cup, an international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

tournament featuring four of the world's most powerful club teams, was held in the United States at the

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game in th ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

and

Soldier Field Soldier Field is a multi-purpose stadium on the Near South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1924 and reconstructed in 2003, the stadium has served as the home of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) since 1 ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

on July 25 and 27, 1997, respectively. It was formally announced on May 1, 1997, by

International Ltd. The inaugural Reebok Cup, endorsed by

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

and the

U.S. Soccer Federation The United States Soccer Federation (USSF), commonly referred to as U.S. Soccer, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the official governing body of the sport of soccer in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, the federation is ...

, showcased clubs from Brazil, Germany, Mexico and Colombia. Representing Europe was the then five-time German League champion and two-time

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

winners

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional Association football, football club based in ...

. The American continent was represented by

SE Palmeiras Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (), commonly known as Palmeiras, is a Brazilian professional football club based in the city of São Paulo, in the district of Perdizes. Palmeiras is one of the most popular clubs in South America, with around ...

of Brazil, 1996 Brazilian Cup vice-champions;

Necaxa Impulsora del Deportivo Necaxa S.A. de C.V. (); often simply known as Necaxa, is a Mexican professional football club in Liga MX based in the city of Aguascalientes. It plays in the Estadio Victoria. History Foundation (Light and Power Comp ...

of Mexico, winners of the 1995 Mexico League championship; and Club Atletico Junior, from

Barranquilla Barranquilla () is the capital district of Atlántico Department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean Coast region; as of 2018 it had a population of 1,206,319, making it Col ...

the 1993 and 1995 Colombian League Champions. The tournament format consisted of doubleheaders at each venue with the opening match in Miami featuring Necaxa, led by Mexico national team captain

Alberto García Aspe Alberto García Aspe Mena (born 11 May 1967) is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is one of the all-time appearance leaders for the Mexico national team. He participated in 109 matches, scoring a total 21 g ...

, national team forward Luis Hernández and Ecuador's national team striker

Álex Aguinaga Álex Dario Aguinaga Garzón (, born 9 July 1969) is an Ecuadorian former professional football player and manager. A midfielder during his playing career, he is one of the all-time cap leaders for Ecuador with 109 matches, scoring 23 goals. Ag ...

against the Mönchengladbach side that included star midfielder

Stefan Effenberg Stefan Effenberg (; born 2 August 1968) is a German former footballer who most recently acted as sporting director for KFC Uerdingen 05. A midfielder, he was known for his leadership skills, passing range, shooting ability, and physical strength ...

and Swedish national team striker

Martin Dahlin Dan Martin Nataniel Dahlin (born 16 April 1968) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a striker. In his prime, he was considered one of the world's best strikers. Starting off his career with Malmö FF in 1987, he was the 19 ...

, who led his country to the semi-finals of

World Cup USA '94 ''World Cup USA '94'' is an association football video game developed by Tiertex Design Studios and published by U.S. Gold. It was released for Genesis, Sega CD, Super NES, Master System, DOS, Game Boy, and Game Gear in 1994. The game gives of ...

. In the "South American Showdown", Brazil national team defender

Cafu Marcos Evangelista de Morais (born 7 June 1970), known as Cafu (), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a right-back. Known for his pace and energetic attacking runs along the right flank, he is regarded as one of the gr ...

, and

Freddy Rincón Freddy Eusebio Rincón Valencia (; 14 August 1966 – 13 April 2022) was a Colombian professional footballer who played 84 games for the Colombia national team between 1990 and 2001. A versatile midfielder, he was capable of playing on the lef ...

, starting midfielder for Colombia's 1990 and 1994 World Cup teams, led Palmeiras against Club Atletico Junior, one of the oldest clubs in the Colombian first division that featured the then-rising star forward

Miguel Asprilla --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to: Places *Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands * São Miguel (disamb ...

and former Colombia national team goalkeeper

José María Pazo José María Pazo Torres (born 4 April 1964) is a Colombian former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career Pazo played for a few clubs, including Atlético Junior. International career Pazo played for the Colombia national footba ...

. The opening match of the doubleheader in Chicago decided third-place in the tournament. The winners of the Orange Bowl doubleheader competed in the championship match to determine the inaugural Reebok Cup champions. The Reebok Cup was intended to become an annual tournament staged worldwide featuring international club teams including Reebok sponsored.

Participants

Atlético Junior Club Deportivo Popular Junior F.C. S.A. (), commonly known as Junior de Barranquilla, by its old name Atlético Junior, or simply as Junior, is a Colombian professional football team based in Barranquilla, that currently plays in the Categoría ...

(

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

)

(Germany)

(Mexico)

(Brazil)

Matches

Semifinals

Borussia 2-1 Necaxa
Goals: Petterson, Juskowiak; Blanco Junior 2-2 Palmeiras (Junior on penalties)
Goals: Clavis, Vilarete; Euller, Alex

Third-place match

Necaxa 4-1 Palmeiras
Goals: Montes de Oca, Aguinaga, Blanco (2); Zinho

Final

Junior 2-0 Borussia
Goals: Méndez, Sacramento ''Most Valuable Player:'' Cuauthemoc Blanco (Necaxa)

Champion

The champion of the 1997 edition of the Reebok Cup was

, from

References

http://www.rsssf.com/tablesr/reebok97.html
http://www.canoe.ca/StatsSOW/BC-SOW-LGNS-REEBOKTRNY-R.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Reebok Cup

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

Soccer in Chicago Soccer in Florida 1997 in American soccer 1997 in Colombian football 1997–98 in Mexican football 1997 in Brazilian football 1997–98 in German football