While the two modern legends have dominated global football for over a decade, Trump opted for a more unconventional pick, praising Brazilian icon Pele as the ultimate GOAT after revealing he watched him play first-hand.
Trump attended the FIFA Club World Cup final on Sunday night at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, marking the end of a remarkable month of football hosted on American soil.
The President revealed his pick for the greatest soccer player of all time during a brief chat with the DAZN anchor, the official broadcaster of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025.
“Many years ago, when I was young, they brought a player called Pele to play and he played for a team called the Cosmos,” said Trump.
“And this place was packed – it was an earlier version of this stadium [the MetLife Stadium] and it was Pele.”
“I don’t want to date myself but that was a long time ago and I was a young guy so I came to watch Pele and he was fantastic. So probably I’ll go old-fashioned – that’s like saying Babe Ruth – and say Pele was so great,” Trump concluded.
The United States welcomed the world’s game across 12 venues, staging 63 matches featuring 32 club teams from every continent.
