(AFP) – Donald Trump experienced the agony and the ecstasy of football on Sunday as he was booed at the final of the FIFA Club World Cup — even as he joined in some high-spirited celebrations with champions Chelsea. The US president was front and center as the winners took to the stage, grinning broadly in his red tie and clapping and jumping with the players as the jubilant Blues lifted the gleaming trophy, which he had presented to captain Reece James.
But moments earlier, loud booing could be heard among cheers and applause as Trump walked onto the pitch for the presentation with FIFA president Gianni Infantino — before the music in the stadium was turned up. Earlier, the Republican billionaire was also applauded as he and First Lady Melania Trump arrived for the match at the MetLife stadium in New Jersey, just outside New York City.
But when a jumbotron screen briefly showed Trump saluting to the US national anthem, yet more boos could be heard in the giant stadium, before the camera quickly cut away. The scorn did little to dampen the president’s spirits as he handed out trophies to the star players, including the Golden Ball for best player to Cole Palmer, followed by handshakes and medals to the defeated Paris Saint-Germain. He later called the crowd “tremendous.”
“We had a great time,” he told reporters as he landed at Joint Base Andrews outside the US capital Washington after the match. The Republican’s appearance at the game also came on the first anniversary of the assassination attempt that he survived at an election rally in Pennsylvania. Trump has made no secret of his desire to use this year’s club championship and next year’s 2026 World Cup as symbols of the “Golden Age of America” during his second term in the White House.
Next year’s World Cup, the final of which will be held at the same stadium, will coincide with the 250th anniversary of America’s independence. Trump has even set up a White House task force to ensure next year’s championship — hosted jointly with Canada and Mexico — goes smoothly.
– ‘He loves it’ –
Trump has fostered a close relationship with Infantino, who has been a frequent visitor to the White House. The president has kept the Club World Cup trophy next to his desk in the Oval Office since the FIFA president dropped by in March. Infantino, who is no stranger to dealing with hard-nosed world leaders including Russia’s Vladimir Putin ahead of the 2018 World Cup, thanked Trump for his support on Saturday. He said Trump had “embraced immediately the importance of the FIFA Club World Cup, and of course of the World Cup next year.”
Infantino also joked that Trump “certainly loves as well the trophy” — whose gold-plated curves match the gilded makeover that the president has given the Oval Office. But Trump’s fondness of football, or soccer as he would say, is also personal. The president’s 19-year-old son Barron is a fan, as Infantino pointed out in a press conference at FIFA’s new office in Trump Tower in New York on Saturday.
Asked if Trump liked the game, Infantino replied: “Well, I think he does. In his first term as president of the United States, there was a soccer goal in the garden of the White House.” He then explained to me that his son loved football, and that he loved the game. And of course, when you are a parent, you love what your children love, so I think that he loves it.” As a boarding school student at the New York Military Academy, Trump himself also reportedly played the game for a season.
– ‘Go home’ –
But in typical form, Trump has also mixed political controversy with his football fandom. Hosting Italian side Juventus in the Oval Office in June, he delivered a diatribe on transgender people in sports before asking the players: “Could a woman make your team, fellas?” Most of the players looked bemused before Juventus general manager Damien Comolli replied: “We have a very good women’s team.”
“He’s being very diplomatic,” said Trump. Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown — part of his “America First” policy — has meanwhile sparked fears that football fans will be discouraged from coming to the United States for the 2026 World Cup. In May, Vice President JD Vance said that fans would be “welcome to come… but when the time is up, they will have to go home.”
– Danny KEMP
© 2024 AFP
