For a person largely related to golf, President Donald Trump‘s profitable a peace prize from world soccer’s governing physique speaks to his rising alliance with the planet’s hottest sport — and his liking of its gold trophies.
On Dec. 5, the president, who has coveted recognition for his efforts to finish worldwide conflicts, gained the primary ever FIFA Peace Prize on the Kennedy Heart for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The award was introduced by Gianni Infantino, president of the Fédération Internationale de Soccer Affiliation, often called FIFA, that’s primarily based in Zurich, Switzerland.
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The prize was awarded to Trump in the course of the 2026 World Cup draw, the occasion that reveals the groupings of nationwide groups, together with the U.S. males’s squad, that may compete within the quadrennial soccer event subsequent summer season in cities throughout the USA, Canada and Mexico.
Listed here are some issues to learn about Trump’s mushrooming connection to soccer.
2026 World Cup: World Cup host group to award its personal peace prize. Will Trump win it?
Trump is usually related to these sports activities
Theodore Roosevelt boxed, Dwight Eisenhower golfed, Richard Nixon steered performs to NFL coaches and Barack Obama stuffed out March Insanity faculty basketball brackets. However, arguably, no sitting U.S. president has been linked with sports activities as a lot as Trump, the forty fifth and forty seventh president.
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Trump has lengthy been related to golf. By Golfweek’s depend, Trump’s enterprise empire owns 11 golf equipment in the USA and one other 4 abroad. Throughout a name with navy servicemen and girls on Thanksgiving, the president mentioned he has “legitimately” gained 38 membership championships.
An proprietor of a soccer franchise in a rival skilled soccer league in the course of the Eighties (the USFL’s New Jersey Generals), the president this 12 months grew to become the primary serving U.S. president to attend the NFL’s Tremendous Bowl. He additionally was at Nascar’s Daytona 500 and the blended martial arts UFC 314 in Miami.
Prematurely of subsequent 12 months’s America250 celebration, Trump has proposed the White Home as the location for a UFC bout.
Extra: Donald Trump says he is ‘legitimately’ gained 38 membership golf championships
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Extra: Does Trump have a golf course in Miami? What number of golf programs Trump has, The place they’re
Donald Trump’s son Barron’s connection to soccer
In a February 2019 interview, the president instructed CBC Information that his youngest son “truly performs a variety of soccer.” The name-drop was one of many few occasions Barron, then 12, got here up in presidential conversations throughout Trump’s first time period within the White Home.
“He is liking soccer,” Trump mentioned in the course of the interview, however didn’t elaborate.
Based on Bleacher Report, when Barron was 11 in 2017 he performed for the D.C. United U-12 soccer staff. He was a midfielder sporting No. 81. D.C. United is a part of Main League Soccer. A 12 months later, in response to Self-importance Honest, Barron acquired to fulfill then-D.C. United participant Wayne Rooney when the previous Manchester United star and his spouse went to a White Home Christmas get together.
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In 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin gifted Trump a soccer ball from that summer season’s World Cup, which was held in Russia. From the rostrum, Trump casually tossed the ball to first girl Melania Trump, seated within the entrance row.
“That is for Barron,” the U.S. president remarked.
The ball, nonetheless, got here underneath scrutiny because it appeared to include a transmitter chip.
Is first girl Melania Trump additionally a soccer fan?
In that 2019 CBS interview, Trump revealed he was stunned at how curiosity in soccer, the world’s most watched sport, was “shifting ahead quickly” in the USA.
“Lots of people, together with me, thought soccer would in all probability by no means make it on this nation, but it surely actually is shifting ahead quickly,” he mentioned.
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Slovenia, the place Melania Trump was born, is among the many nations the place soccer is dominant. Slovenia, nonetheless, has not appeared int he World Cup since 2010, a event gained by powerhouse Spain.
FIFA chief Infantino a giant Trump fan
Throughout a chat at a Nov. 5 Miami convention, Infantino glowed when speaking about Trump, with whom he feels “very fortunate” to have such “a fantastic relationship.” He mentioned the U.S. president, throughout his first time period within the White Home, was “very, very useful” in serving to to safe the USA as a bunch for subsequent 12 months’s event.
“He does issues. He does what, what he says, he says, what he thinks,” Infantino mentioned. “He says, truly, what many individuals assume as properly, however perhaps do not dare to say, and that is why he is so profitable, proper?
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The FIFA chief then went on to say he’s “stunned” by criticism of Trump.
“He was elected primarily based on a program, primarily based on what he mentioned, and he is simply implementing what he mentioned he would do,” Infantino mentioned. “So I believe we must always all help what he is doing, as a result of I believe he is doing fairly good, completely proper. And for FIFA, much more.”
U.S. President Donald Trump holds the golden ball trophy as Chelsea’s Cole Palmer greets FIFA president Gianni Infantino after Chelsea gained towards Paris St Germain within the FIFA Membership World Cup closing, on the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, U.S., July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/Pool
However these remarks additionally drew a rebuke from inside Infantino’s FIFA group for feedback mentioned to have breached necessities that FIFA officers stay impartial and never intrude in or endorse member nation’s political platforms or leaders.
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Miguel Maduro, a former chairman of FIFA’s governance committee, mentioned Infantino crossed a line he shouldn’t. Maduro mentioned Infantino was inside his rights to acknowledge the legitimacy of a international chief however not state help of or name for backing a rustic’s chief or insurance policies.
Trump likes FIFA’s gold soccer championship trophies
Again in August, Infantino appeared on the White Home for conferences on subsequent 12 months’s event.
Trump’s remake of the White Home with a lot of gilding was underway. And he clearly admired the golden soccer trophy Infantino introduced alongside for the picture opp.
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“Can I hold it?” Trump requested. “Severely, it suits very properly on the wall proper over there. We’ll put it proper beneath the angels.”
Infantino politely mentioned no with a chuckle.
However Trump did, reportedly, hold the unique FIFA Membership World Cup trophy. The one introduced to event winner Chelsea at MetLife Stadium in July was a duplicate.
Trump likes being seen with soccer gamers, meets Cristiano Ronaldo
Talking of the FIFA Membership World Cup event, the president attended the ultimate at MetLife Stadium between English-side Chelsea and France’s PSG. He was current, as is customary, in the course of the presentation of the trophy to winner Chelsea.
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However reasonably than exit the stage because the profitable squad lifts the cup in a staff celebration second, Trump stayed on stage in a clumsy self-invite.
And in November, Trump hosted soccer icon Cristiano Ronaldo on the Oval Workplace.
Antonio Fins is a politics and enterprise editor at The Palm Seashore Publish, a part of the USA TODAY Florida Community. You’ll be able to attain him at afins@pbpost.com. Assist help our journalism. Subscribe at this time.
This text initially appeared on Palm Seashore Publish: Trump wins FIFA peace prize, attracts near soccer and gold trophy
