In the history of this country, we’ve seen presidents awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Pulitzers, military medals, and countless other awards; awards bestowed on them for actions and deeds they have done, or maybe should have done (looking at you, Obama).
But for the first time, we have a president who was awarded a trophy for a soccer tournament in which he was merely a spectator.
Of course, if you watched the Club World Cup, which was hosted this past month in the United States, you would have seen President Trump’s celebration with the victorious Chelsea squad go viral. The president was supposed to hand off the trophy to the English squad after their upset blowout win over French favorites Paris St. Germain and then move off to the side.
But Trump decided to hang out with the victors. Can you blame him? Why wouldn’t you want to be in the center of it all? After several moments, some players, including Chelsea’s Cole Palmer, were a little befuddled as to why he was still hanging out.
“I knew he was going to be here, but I didn’t know he was going to be on the stand when we lifted the trophy, so I was a bit confused,” Palmer said.
The celebration continued as planned, with Chelsea hoisting their trophy and Trump smiling away in the center of it all.
Well, they hoisted “a” trophy.
It turns out that Trump later said the original trophy is sitting in the Oval Office and that it was gifted to him by FIFA, soccer’s governing body, and the organizers of the Club World Cup tournament. The original started making its rounds to promote the tournament, only to find itself not actually making its way to said tournament.
The trophy, created by Tiffany & Co., was newly created for the expanded tournament. It is a 24-carat gold-plated homage to world soccer with the names of all member countries, a world map, 13 languages, and a collage of soccer moments engraved on it. Inspired by the Voyager Golden Record (which was created to show aliens the whole of humanity), this trophy does the same, except for soccer. Or football, depending on where you are.
The trophy was shown to Trump in the Oval Office and immediately found its permanent place there. It hasn’t been hidden away either. It made an appearance when the Juventas squad of Italy made a visit to the President. It was also prominently featured when Donald Trump presented his ex-BFF Elon Musk with a key to the city/government/social security records.
The trophy itself didn’t end up in the hands of the victors. Instead, they received a replica, and it’s that replica that they took back to England. The Trump Administration claims the Club World Cup trophy was a gift from FIFA, one that Trump could keep “forever.”
It’s not the first time a team received a replica. The World Cup trophy, the prize for the biggest and most well-known FIFA tournament, awards a replica while the original stays locked away (try not to confuse the World Cup Trophy with the Club World Cup Trophy).
Sometimes teams don’t even get to keep their trophy for very long.
Arguably one of the most famous sports trophies of all, the Stanley Cup, gets to be chaperoned around the country for a summer tour, so each player can show it off, only to end up back with the safe hands of the National Hockey League.
The trophy wasn’t the only memento that Donald Trump snagged. Pictures also showed him pocketing a medal that FIFA President Gianni Infantino showed to him. Whether it was meant to be a gift or not will remain to be seen, but we know this: Trump really wants as many shiny, bright objects as he can get his hands on.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that a head of state has snagged a piece of sports history. Presidents receive their own jerseys at White House celebrations and may also receive some other mementos from a championship team. Most of these end up in a presidential library after spending years in a storage bin.
But one item remains legendary. When Russian President Vladimir Putin met with New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft, Kraft showed Putin his ring from Super Bowl XXXIX. Putin quipped, “I could kill someone with this thing,” and promptly pocketed it. That’s right, the Russian president stole a Super Bowl ring and now probably wears it around the Kremlin.
We will see if Trump is content with the FIFA trophy in the Oval Office, or if he might also try to snag the Vince Lombardi trophy as well.
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