Unless you’ve been living under a rock this week then you likely know that Donald Trump won the 2024 U.S. presidential election. FIFA President Gianni Infantino posted to Instagram to congratulate the 47th President of the United States.
Gianni Infantino Trump post
View this post on Instagram
With the United States hosting the 2026 World Cup, this likely means that Trump will have a role to play in the big event. It’s typically tradition for the leader of the host country to present the trophy to the winning team.
In 2022 Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was on stage to drape Lionel Messi in a bisht before the trophy was handed over to the Argentine No. 10.
Four years prior in Russia President Vladimir Putin helped hand off the trophy to France. Prior to that, Brazil’s former leader Dilma Rousseff handed Philipp Lahm the World Cup trophy in 2014.
Should Trump follow the tradition, we could see him with the trophy in his hands passing it on to the 2026 winners. The U.S. President will be 80 years old by the time that happens. There’s also a chance that Trump could make an appearance for the inaugural 32-team FIFA Club World Cup hosted in the U.S. next summer.
Trump and Infantino have said to each other that they are close friends with the two meeting several times during Trump’s first presidency.
Infantino has said in the past that Trump is “made of the same fiber” as the best soccer players in the world.
"I am lucky enough in my life to come across some of the most talented athletes in soccer. And President Trump is made of the same sort of fiber. He is a competitor. He wants to compete, he wants to win. He wants to show who is the best. He says actually what many think, but more importantly, he does, then, what he says,” Infantino said at the 2020 World Economic Forum.
