The U.S. men’s national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino has revealed that he would happily hand President Donald Trump the World Cup trophy should they pull off an unlikely feat on home soil, laughing off the hypothetical extravagance of the ceremony as typically American.
Were Pochettino to find himself up on the winners’ stage this summer, he would have seen the USMNT become the first non-European or South American team to win the World Cup. In the even of that historic achievement, there is every chance that Trump would find himself close by.
The President infamously remained on the crowded stage during Chelsea’s celebrations at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, inspiring the ire of Cole Palmer after the Premier League side defeated Paris Saint-Germain at the MetLife Stadium. The 2026 World Cup final will also take place at the same New Jersey venue.
"For sure, I will give [it to him if we] win. I will give him the trophy, and he can lift the trophy for sure, no problem for me,” Pochettino said in a recent interview with the . “I think the president was [at the Club World Cup] and supporting soccer at a massive event.
“Maybe he’s not a soccer person, and he was a little bit in a situation where he didn’t know what to do [in the celebrations], but it was funny. It was funny. That is America.”
Trump, who has involved himself in World Cup planning by leading the White House World Cup Task Force and pushing for the World Cup draw to be at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., is expected to have a significant presence at the tournament. Meanwhile, Mexican and Canadian leaders Claudia Sheinbaum and Mark Carney are also likely to appear throughout next summer.
