WASHINGTON (BN24) — President Donald Trump said the Club World Cup trophy displayed in the Oval Office will stay there permanently, claiming FIFA created a duplicate award for Chelsea after their triumph in Sunday’s final.
Trump attended the championship match alongside members of his cabinet and FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who joined him in presenting the trophy to Chelsea captain Reece James. The president remained prominently in front during the ceremony, even as Chelsea’s players looked on with apparent confusion and Infantino motioned for him to step aside.
The moment underscored Trump’s increasingly visible role in global soccer affairs. His relationship with FIFA has intensified since the start of his second term in office, with Infantino first unveiling the trophy inside the White House in March. It has remained on display in the Oval Office for every event there since.
In an interview with official Club World Cup broadcaster DAZN, Trump said FIFA leaders told him the original trophy could stay in Washington indefinitely.
“I said, When are you going to pick up the trophy? [They said] ‘We’re never going to pick it up. You can have it forever in the Oval Office. We’re making a new one,’” Trump recounted. “And they actually made a new one. So that was quite exciting, but it is in the Oval right now.”
It remains unclear whether there are any distinctions between the two trophies, and FIFA has not confirmed details of any replicas.
During the same interview, Trump mused about issuing an executive order mandating that soccer be called football in the United States. He also asserted that foreign leaders have described the U.S. as “the hottest country in the world,” referencing what he called booming economic and diplomatic influence.
“It’s about unity,” Trump said of FIFA’s tournaments coming to American soil. “It’s about everybody getting together and a lot of love between countries. I guess this is probably the most international sport, so it can really bring the world together.”
