Did Trump Really Get A CWC Winner’s Medal During Chelsea Celebrations

Gianni Infantino’s expanded Club World Cup pet project has now come to an end for this summer and to put it simply, it certainly generated the number of headlines that FIFA would have wanted it to, however, particularly as it was supposed to be a trial run for the United States to better understand how to once again host the upcoming World Cup, the headlines it did create were not necessarily the ones that they would have wanted to be written.

Starting with an invented transfer window that was only ever designed to help a select few chosen clubs, we even had Infantino trying to find Cristiano Ronaldo a new club so that he could take part alongside Lionel Messi. Intense heat, down to two odd hour rain and weather delays in what were largely half empty stadiums (with significant ticket price reductions also employed) were all highlights that the media have poured over during the last few weeks, and that is without even mentioning part timers or getting into the financial imbalance of the prize money on offer which differed significantly depending on which club you actually were.

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Even the Final itself conjured up headlines that sports writers had simply never thought that they would be writing during their careers. No, we are not talking about English Premier League side Chelsea quite comfortably conquering the serial impressive and consistent French Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain with three very unexpected first half goals, and we are not even talking about PSG’s mini meltdown when the final whistle went amidst claims that manager Luis Enrique potentially slapped Chelsea forward Joao Pedro.

Let me take you to the celebrations. US President Donald Trump was always going to be in attendance given the media spotlight that the competition final was going to garner, and it had been planned that he would appear on the stage at the MetLife Stadium to present the winning team with their trophy, and then graciously depart after having made his own cameo substitute appearance on the pitch at the event.

The Donald seemingly had other ideas though. Having presented Chelsea skipper Reece James with the trophy, Infantino invited Mr Trump to move aside to allow them to celebrate as a team, but Mr Trump declined and instead decided to remain standing alongside James and goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, enthusiastically applauding as they began what were confused celebrations by this point.

Having shared in the moment for a period of time, Trump then exited with Infantino but even Cole Palmer had to admit that it was a bit of a surreal moment and that it has left him ‘a bit confused’.

Maybe not as surreal as some videos appearing to show Infantino presenting Trump with one of the winner’s medals, but the President potentially completed his own hattrick on the day as an interview released later had him answering questions on whether or not he would sign an executive order to encourage American soccer fans to more rightly refer to the sport as football.

With the US hosting the 2026 World Cup alongside ‘Build the Wall’ Mexico and 51st State Canada, things could very quickly get even stranger.