Tag: FIFA Club World Cup

EAST RUTHERFORD: Chelsea outplayed UEFA Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) 3-0 to clinch the FIFA Club World Cup trophy here at the MetLife Stadium, New Jersey, on Sunday.

This was the first edition of the 32-team Club World Cup, with the next tournament scheduled to take place in 2029. The Chelsea vs PSG final saw a nearly full house with 81,118 fans in attendance, including President Donald Trump.

The European champions, PSG, made their way to the United States after their triumphant campaign, with a stunning 5-0 demolition of Inter Milan in late May. However, the favorites failed to live up to the expectation as Chelsea dominated throughout the final.

The ‘Player of the Match’ in the Chelsea vs PSG final, Cole Palmer, scored two goals and set up another as the English club won the first edition of the expanded Club World Cup by beating European champions Paris Saint-Germain 3-0 in Sunday’s final at the 82,500 capacity MetLife Stadium.

Palmer netted twice in the opening half-hour and Joao Pedro added the third before the break, with a roundly beaten PSG having Joao Neves sent off late on.

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Cole Palmer opened the scoring midway through the first half and struck again to make it two on the half-hour mark, before taking advantage of passive defending to set up Joao Pedro for the third on 43 minutes.

A bad day for PSG was summed up when Joao Neves was shown red following a VAR review four minutes from the end for pulling Marc Cucurella by the hair off the ball.

It was a scoreline that few could have predicted, as Chelsea capped what has been a long but memorable season by becoming the first-ever winners of the Club World Cup, having also won the UEFA Conference League and finished fourth in the Premier League.

They will also take away around $125 million in prize money, meaning the prospect of a drastically curtailed summer break before returning for next season will surely feel worth it.

For PSG, the financial benefits are similar, but there is a real sense of disappointment in not being able to add this title to their Champions League victory and their double win in the French league and cup.

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Donald Trump will on Sunday appear in the FIFA Club World Cup final, showcasing 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 that he views both tournaments, as well as the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, as showcases 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.”

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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, 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 hardline 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.”

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