Donald Trump has backed Lionel Messi and Argentina to beat Spain in the World Cup final on Sunday.
Speaking to Fox reporter Jenny Taft, Trump said: ‘Well, I knew you were going to ask me so I thought about it a lot. I hate to get involved even though poltically it doesn’t matter so much.
‘I would say that it is hard to bet against Messi. I watched that pass, it was exacrtly perfect (to Lautaro Martinez to score the winning goal against England). But that was perfect, if you had a strike zone it was exactly where it had to be.
‘I just think it is very hard to bet against Messi, he is great.’
While discussing the all-time greats of the game Trump, who is attending the game, added that his son Barron, 20, talks a lot to him about soccer and shares a lot of his knowledge about the game with him.
‘Messi is great and Ronaldo is great and I hate to say this but I watched Pele when he was with the Cosmos,’ Trump said. ‘I got to see Pele play. These are great players.
Donald Trump backs Lionel Messi and Argentina to win the World Cup final on Sunday
Trump pictured with son Barron and Zlatan Ibrahimovic at UFC 250 at the White House in June
‘There are some others. I get this information from my son, my son Barron is a tremendous soccer fan.
‘You really have some other really incredible players playing here but I would say right now, when you look, I have always liked Ronaldo, I’ve always like Messi.
‘I met Messi just recently and I have known Cristiano. They have a pretty good life – much easier than my life, actually!’
Trump recently hosted Messi and Inter Miami at the White House to celebrate their 2025 Major League Soccer title.
Trump added that he is friendly with Argentina’s leader, Javier Milei. The same cannot be said of Spain.
Trump launched a stinging attack on the country at a UN summit earlier in July for not contributing enough money to NATO.
‘Spain is a terrible partner in NATO. They don’t participate. They don’t pay. I don’t want anything to do with Spain. Cut off all trade with Spain, please, including visits,’ he said.
‘Don’t even talk to them. They’re hopeless, bad people.’
Trump hosted Messi and his Inter Miami team at the White House back in March
Then, on his way back to the United States on Air Force One, Trump said Spain had tried to improve their standings with him.
‘I did have issues, and I still do. But Spain, they came back all the way today. Spain was very generous today,’ he said.
‘They honoured a request for lots of payments, and if they didn’t, we wouldn’t have even talked to them.’
Days later, though, and Trump could find himself center stage for an historic moment for Spain, who are the favorites to win the competition on Sunday.
Trump is expected to hand the trophy over to the winning team after the game.
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