At the 2010 FIFA Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi in mid December, Stanković played an excellent semi-final against Seongnam, scoring the opening goal and performing well. Despite this, however, Benítez decided to bench the midfielder for the final versus TP Mazembe, only bringing him on for Christian Chivu in the 54th minute. Benítez was soon sacked despite winning the trophy, and a couple of weeks later Stanković expressed his dismay at Spaniard's decision to leave him on the bench for the final. On the same occasion, despite publicly backing the beleaguered coach months earlier, Stanković stated that Benítez simply "didn't work" at Inter.