Trump the football fan: US president to attend FIFA club final

BEDMINSTER, United States: Donald Trump will on Sunday showcase his unexpected attachment to a sport in which “America First” remains a dream, for now.

The US president is attending the final of the newly expanded FIFA Club World Cup in his latest use of the beautiful game as a soft power political weapon.

His appearance at the MetLife stadium in New Jersey, where Paris Saint-Germain face Chelsea, is very much a trial run for the World Cup final, which will take place in the same stadium next year.

Trump has made it clear he sees both tournaments, as well as the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, as showpieces for what he calls the “Golden Age of America” during his second term.

The billionaire Republican’s close friendship with FIFA president Gianni Infantino, a frequent visitor to the White House, is also a factor in his appearance.

Trump has kept the Club World Cup trophy next to his desk in the Oval Office since Infantino dropped by in March.

But Trump’s embrace 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 student at the New York Military Academy, Trump himself also reportedly played the game for a season.

Trump’s apparent fondness for football may seem unusual for a country where, despite growing popularity, the sport still lags behind American football, basketball and baseball.

The former reality TV star has, however, always had an eye for popularity, power and influence. And football in its own way brings all three.

Trump pointed out when Infantino visited the White House in March that the United States won the right to host the 2026 World Cup in 2018, during his first term as president.

He said he was “so sad” because he assumed he would not be president when the tournament came around — but his 2020 election loss meant that he would after all.

The FIFA Club World Cup has meanwhile proved more successful than its critics predicted, with around 2.5 million people attending games across the country and some gripping games.

Infantino, who is no stranger to dealing with hard-nosed leaders around the world, thanked Trump for his support on Saturday.

He said Trump “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 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 hard-line immigration crackdown — part of his “America First” policy — has meanwhile sparked fears that football fans will be discouraged from coming to the United States.

In May, Vice President JD Vance said that 2026 World Cup fans were “welcome to come... but when the time is up they will have to go home.”

SYDNEY: Nick Kyrgios said Thursday his long-term knee injury had suddenly improved, giving him hopes of a “miracle” comeback in time for the Australian Open in January.

Kyrgios, 30, has played just five singles matches in the last three years because of multiple surgeries on wrist and then knee injuries.

“In the last month, I don’t know what it is. I was with my masseuse and physio last night and something really has changed with my knee,” the 2022 Wimbledon finalist Kyrgios told the Australian Associated Press.

“It’s not swelling. It’s not feeling bad after a session.

“I don’t know whether to call it a miracle or anything, but my knee feels like it’s gotten younger by a couple of years.”

Kyrgios said he could not explain why, after months of struggling with rehabilitation, there had been such an unexpected and rapid improvement.

“I don’t want to jinx it, but something in it has gone, kind of allowed me to put three, four days of training together on court for an hour-and-a-half, two hours and be able to actually recover and then build on that,” said Kyrgios

“So that’s been really exciting and I haven’t really told anyone. I have a new lease on life on court.”

Kyrgios, whose ranking has slid to 652 in the world because of his inactivity, would need a wild card from organizers for the Australian Open.

He has not played since losing in the second round of the Miami Open in March.

Kyrgios is due to face women’s world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka on Dec. 28 in a rare “Battle of the Sexes” exhibition match in Dubai, organizers said this week.

Trump the football fan: US president to attend FIFA club final