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Donald Trump said he could sign an executive order renaming “soccer” to “football” in the US. As he handed Chelsea their trophy, Trump also named Brazila’s Pele as soccer’s GOAT.
Donald Trump holds the golden glove trophy after Chelsea won against Paris St Germain in the FIFA Club World Cup final (Photo: AFP)
Donald Trump has said he could sign a new order requiring soccer to be called “football” in the United States in line with the rest of the world.
The US President’s remark on the same came during the FIFA Club World Cup final Sunday, when a reporter suggested penning a new executive order officially renaming soccer “football” in the country.
“I think we could do that,” Trump said.
At the event, Trump was seated next to FIFA boss Gianni Infantino in box seats at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where fans booed him when he appeared briefly on the jumbotron during the US national anthem.
He was on his feet in the same VIP suite after Chelsea completed their thrashing of Paris St Germain, pumping his fist as congratulatory music blared.
He handed Chelsea their trophy and stood in the middle of the players for their team photo and celebration.
Asked who he believed was soccer’s “GOAT,” Trump named Brazilian icon Pele, who helped spark interest in the sport in the US in his brief time playing for the New York Cosmos in the fledgling North American Soccer League in 1975.
“I came to watch Pele, and he was fantastic,” Trump told broadcaster DAZN.
“That’s like saying Babe Ruth, but I would say Pele was so great,” he added.
Trump also 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,” Trump said.
“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’,” he told the outlet.
“There’s a lot of truth to that. We were doing very badly as a country under 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,” he added.
FIFA announced last week that it had opened an office in New York’s Trump Tower ahead of the 2026 World Cup, which the US will co-host with Canada and Mexico. A record 48 national teams are set to take part.
Trump’s appearance at MetLife came a day after he threatened to impose a 30 per cent tariff on imports from Mexico and the European Union, an escalation of a trade war that has angered US allies and rattled investors.
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Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.
Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.
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