Chelsea defeated Paris Saint-Germain 3-0 in the final of the first edition of an expanded Club World Cup in New York on Sunday afternoon.
President Donald Trump was there to commemorate the occasion and hand out the trophy, and in totally surprising and out-of-character fashion, somehow managed to make the moment all about himself.
The trophy lift is a sacred moment for any soccer team. Unlike American sports championship celebrations where usually the owner gets first dibs on handling silverware and there’s an interview or two, the captain of the team takes center stage, bringing the trophy to the team of players before triumphantly lifting it over his head to soak in the cheers of the crowd and bask in the glory of the victory. It’s an incredible and meaningful moment.
But with Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino using the Club World Cup to prop themselves up in a show of their power and influence ahead of North America’s hosting of the men’s World Cup next summer, this was never going to be an ordinary trophy lift.
First, it appeared as though Trump was bizarrely given a winner’s medal by Infantino. Then, as captain Reece James received the trophy, a video appears to show Chelsea star Cole Palmer wondering what Trump was doing there and James asking if he was going to leave.
When it quickly became apparent that would not be the case, James went ahead and lifted the trophy with Trump right beside him in one of the most bizarre moments in the history of world soccer. We’re pretty confident that Trump knows about as much soccer as Mike Francesa does, but that didn’t stop him from joining the party.
Donald Trump has a long history of inserting himself and his politics into American sporting events, going so far as to suggest that a UFC event will take place on the lawn of the White House next summer and has appeared at several major sporting events.
But he’s never put himself quite as awkwardly and forcefully in the front and center as this. Maybe by next summer, he will take a page out of the Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un playbook and demand to take the field for the USMNT himself. Who knows, by that point, the US squad might need it.