For millions of fans and viewers around the globe, the players on the MetLife Stadium pitch during Sunday’s FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ final will be sources of genuine encouragement and inspiration – real-life examples of what can be achieved when talent is infused with hope and relentless determination. Those fans should stick around and take note of one of the performers during Sunday’s star-studded Halftime Show, as well. The journey that Australian singer Emmanuel Kelly has made to the Club World Cup decider, not to mention a successful recording career, is every bit as uplifting as those taken by the members of Chelsea FC and Paris Saint-Germain. And it was achieved against much longer odds.

“Originally I’m from Iraq. I was found in a box on a battlefield in Iraq by a couple of soldiers who were supposedly shooting at one another,” Kelly said as he began to recount his incredible life story. Chemical warfare had damaged his limbs, and his prospects were poor. But Kelly survived, and after a harrowing early childhood in a Baghdad orphanage, he was rescued at age seven and brought to Australia by honoured humanitarian Moira Kelly. Emmanuel underwent multiple surgeries in the ensuing years, which offered him a chance to shape the course of his life. “We learnt all the basic things I think that humans take for granted sometimes, like walking and feeding themselves and things like that,” Kelly said, speaking of himself and his fellow adoptee, Ahmed (a Paralympic swimmer). “Eventually I decided I wanted to pursue entertainment and music.”

Kelly’s ambition, belief and disarming sense of humour had to be forged and nurtured. There was a lot to overcome. The path he took toward self-acceptance has underpinned his career, and it has inspired him to perform at the Club World Cup final. The sensational Halftime Show will be FIFA’s first, and it will be produced in partnership with Global Citizen, an organisation dedicated to battling and ending extreme poverty. One dollar from every ticket sold during Club World Cup will be donated to the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, which aims to raise USD 100 million to furnish children around the world with more access to education and football. Those things, in turn, might provide opportunity, a bit of optimism, and hopefully some self-belief.

That mission aligns perfectly with Emmanuel Kelly’s. “If you’re confident and you’re tough, and you love yourself essentially, and you appreciate yourself, and you embrace who you are, then it acts as the best shield to all the negativity in the world,” he said. “I think it’s important just to inspire people to love themselves and not be afraid to be an outlier, not to be afraid to be different. And who knows, maybe one day they can be in a Halftime Show at a FIFA Club World Cup final.” In 2011, at the age of 18, he performed John Lennon’s “Imagine” on Australia’s X Factor. It was an appropriate choice and a viral sensation, and soon after Kelly’s career took off. “A lot of views later, I ended up in the U.S. working with some amazing people, from Quincy Jones to Bruno Mars, and more recently went on tour with Coldplay,” Kelly said. “Chris has been my brother, Chris Martin, for eight years or so, and he said to me, ‘Hey, come on tour with me and join me on a stadium tour.’ I did that and that was pretty epic.” Chris Martin is curating Sunday’s Halftime Show, which will take place on a purpose-built stage constructed in MetLife Stadium’s upper deck. Joining Kelly during the unprecedented musical spectacle will be Colombian reggaeton artist J Balvin, American rapper and singer Doja Cat, and Nigerian singer Tems.

As excited as Kelly is to perform alongside chart-topping icons, however, he might be more star struck by the players on the pitch. He’s a keen FIFA video game player and an “epic football fan” who hopes Chelsea’s Cole Palmer is able to break through on Sunday. Kelly expects an “extraordinary game” to cap off an “incredible” tournament. He added that he’s been thrilled to see so many fans embrace the expanded Club World Cup as an event that offers more opportunity to more deserving teams from more diverse places. “There were clubs that made it through that people wouldn’t have expected to make it through,” he said. Kelly’s performance, along with the rest of the Halftime Show and the FIFA Club World Cup final between Chelsea and PSG, will be available to stream live and for free on DAZN.com. He hopes fans around the world take in the entire spectacle. There’s a message to send, hope to spark and plenty of fun to be had. “There [are] a few things in the world that I think [speak] a universal language, and a few sports probably in the world that speak a universal language. Music, film and television, and sport are the three languages, like universal languages. And out of those sports, FIFA, soccer, football, whatever you want to call it, that is probably the one sport that speaks every single language in the world,” Kelly said. “It brings people together,” he continued. “It’s one of the most powerful, uniting tools you can use in a world that’s… extraordinarily divided. We need some happiness. We need a bit of glory. We need a little glitz and glam, and we need dreams. And what better place to see dreams and get into a dream FIFA state than [with] FIFA?”