United States President Donald Trump joined Chelsea on stage as they celebrated their Club World Cup success on Sunday.
Cole Palmer scored twice and set up another as the Blues stunned favourites Paris St Germain 3-0 in front of Trump in the final in New York.
Trump, who was briefly booed by some of the 81,118 crowd at the MetLife Stadium, then presented Chelsea with the trophy alongside Gianni Infantino, president of world governing body FIFA, after the game.
After handing the silverware to Chelsea captain Reece James, Trump was then invited to move out of the way by Infantino.
However, he remained in position as James lifted the trophy and the team began their celebrations amid fireworks and confetti.
“They told me that he was going to present the trophy and then exit the stage, and I thought that he was going to exit the stage, but he wanted to stay,” said James afterwards.
Asked what Trump had said to him, James added: “To be honest it was quite loud. I couldn’t hear too much. He just congratulated me and the team for lifting the trophy and told us to enjoy the moment.”
Match-winner Palmer had appeared bemused by the situation.
He said afterwards: “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. I was a bit confused, yes.”
Chelsea’s victory, the culmination of FIFA’s newly-expanded 32-team tournament, also earned them a jackpot in excess of £90million.
Trump earlier said he had enjoyed the occasion, telling broadcaster DAZN at half-time: “I am having a really great time. Tremendous sport.”
In a longer recorded interview broadcast after the game, the president, who revealed his favourite player of all time was Pele, added when asked about the competition: “It’s a big thing.
“Gianni is a friend of mine, he’s done such a great job with the league and with soccer – or as they would call it ‘football’, but I guess we call it soccer. But I’m sure that change could be made very easily.
“But it’s great to watch – and this is a little bit of an upset that we’re watching today, isn’t it? So far. It’s incredible.”
When it was suggested he could make an executive order to rename the sport, Trump said with a smile: “I think we could do that, I think I could do that.”
The US leader was also asked if he could see a day when the USA, which will co-host the men’s World Cup along with Canada and Mexico next summer, could dominate in football, and he replied: “I can tell you we’re doing very well on the other stage, on the political stage, on the final stage.
“We were doing very badly as a country. We had an incompetent administration and now we have a hot country. It’s really hot and I think the soccer is going to be very hot here too.”
