EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — There has been so much wonderfulness to this World Cup.
Lionel Messi, the ageless marvel. Vozinha and Cape Verde. Boston’s embrace of The Tartan Army. The country getting behind the U.S. men’s national team and all the people who fell in love with soccer for the first time. The good folks in Lawrence, Kansas, learning the Algerian national anthem to make Les Fennecs feel at home.
Erling Haaland. France’s Liberty kits. Rebecca Lowe, Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Argentina’s back-from-the-brink against Cape Verde. Argentina’s back-from-the-brink win against Egypt. Argentina’s back-from-the-brink win against England.
The delightfully chaotic third-place match between England and France, a game nobody wanted that wound up being the most entertaining one of the whole six weeks.
And he did his best to butt in.
Our last memory of this World Cup, though hopefully not our lasting memory, is going to be President Donald Trump commandeering the spotlight at the final as he does everywhere he goes. Feigning interest and expertise he doesn’t have, and claiming credit he doesn’t deserve.
Trump’s mere presence is making it exponentially longer just to get into the stadium. Then he inserted himself into the trophy presentation, like one of those dorks in high school you couldn’t shake, making us pine for Salt Bae. Fortunately, FIFA president Gianni Infantino has been through this before and moved Trump off the podium so he couldn’t steal the players’ moment as he did at last year’s Club World Cup final.
Yet one more thing he’s tried to horn in on in his hunt for another spotlight.
Sports has always been our great unifier, something people can agree on when they can’t find common ground anywhere else. Parents and their children, feuding neighbors, people on opposite political divides — sports gives us a safe space, a way to communicate when we can’t find words for anything else.
That goes quadruple for the World Cup. At a time when our country has been launching wars and alienating our allies, this World Cup has given us a chance to show the people of the world our true hearts.
The tournament hasn’t been perfect, and the government’s petty treatment of Iran’s team, a Somali referee and Black and brown fans from multiple countries was downright shameful. But, by and large, the games went off smoothly, and the warm-hearted welcome ordinary Americans gave our visitors has helped remind the world that our country and our government are not one in the same.
Now all that goodwill is going to go out the window.
If Trump were really a soccer fan, this wouldn’t be a conversation. But his words and actions have made it clear he’s not. This is the first game of the tournament he’s attended. When he was defending his mob boss-like interference into USMNT forward Folarin Balogun’s red card, he said he didn’t even know what a red card was.
It also isn’t an issue for the head of a country to be present at big sporting events in their country. George W. Bush opened the Salt Lake City Olympics five months after 9/11. The leader of the other two co-hosts, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, as was Spain’s King Felipe VI.
But there is a difference between attending the final and it becoming a spectacle meant to glorify our dear leader.
I’d like to give Trump the benefit of the doubt, to hope he would have just handed out the medals and gotten out of the way. But his presence at other big sporting events, including last summer’s Club World Cup final, and changing the entire vibe of the USMNT’s run, suggested Trump will make this final all about him.
Sure enough …
Infantino had already acquiesced and said Trump could help hand out the trophy. Let him touch it, too, despite insisting months ago that “nobody” could. But then, instead of exiting the stage, Trump hovered around Spain’s players. Infantino tried to move him along, but Trump wouldn’t budge for several seconds.
When Infantino was finally able to get him off the main stage, Trump stopped on one of the lower risers of the podium. While Trump wasn’t front and center of Spain’s celebration, he was there as the players were showered in confetti, glomming on to their moment.
He could not help himself. Trump has an insatiable need for adoration, and Infantino has been only too happy to indulge him, even at the expense of FIFA’s crown jewel.
This World Cup has had so many lovely moments. No matter what embarrassment occurs at the final, let those be our lasting memory.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.