President Trump joked about requiring the US to call soccer “football” in line with the rest of the world during an interview at the FIFA Club World Cup final Sunday, where he touched on the state of America and his favorite sports stars.
Trump attended the FIFA final at MetLife Stadium Sunday evening, where Chelsea FC trounced Paris Saint-Germain FC in what the president aptly described as “a bit of an upset.”
Despite the let-down match, Trump lit up when a reporter suggested penning a new executive order officially renaming soccer “football” in the US.
“I think we could do that,” he told DAZN.
The commander in chief was invited to the tournament by FIFA President Gianni Infantino, a longtime friend. He said he took great pleasure in watching soccer boom in the US with hopes it could soon match the country’s other standings on the world stage.
“[The US] is doing very well on the other stage, on the political stage, on the financial stage. I was just in Saudi Arabia, I was in Qatar, I was in the UAE. Here we have Qatar, you know, the big presence they have, but you have all of the leaders and then you look at NATO, all of the leaders said ‘a year ago your country was dead, and now you have the hottest country in the world’,” Trump told the outlet.
“There’s a lot of truth to that, we were doing very badly as a country in an incompetent administration and now we have a hot country. It’s really hot. And I think the soccer is going to be hot here too.”
Trump cheekily added that FIFA had to make a whole new Club World Cup trophy after Infantino left it in the Oval Office in March as a gift to the president that conveniently matches his signature gilded decor.
Infantino has previously praised Trump for embracing FIFA and offering up the US to host both World Cups, with the main stage tournament’s final coming to New Jersey’s MetLife stadium in July 2026.
Trump hopes that boosting athletics, particularly sports with international popularity like soccer, can provide greater points of connection between total strangers or entire countries typically at odds.
“[Sports] is about unity, a lot of getting together, a lot of love between countries. I guess this is probably the most international sport, so it can really bring the world together,” he told the outlet.
Trump added that of FIFA’s star-studded lineup, Brazilian football legend Pelé would be his personal “GOAT,” even if the choice did age him, he said.
He noted that he was fortunate enough to see Pelé in action when he was “a young guy” and has revered the late champion ever since.
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