Juventus players befuddled by visit with Trump at White House: 'I just want to play football, man'
President Trump speaks to the press June 18 in the Oval Office of the White House as members of Italian soccer club Juventus (from left, Timothy Weah, Weston McKennie, Daniele Rugani, coach Igor Tudor and Dusan Vlahovics) stand behind him. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images)
Members of the Italian soccer team Juventus visited with President Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon.
Exactly why the gathering took place remains largely a mystery.
Six of the team's players (Weston McKennie, Timothy Weah, Manuel Locatelli, Federico Gatti, Teun Koopmeiners and Dusan Vlahovic), their coach Igor Tudor, a handful of team executives and FIFA president Gianni Infantino stopped by hours before Juventus' FIFA Club World Cup game against United Arab Emirates' Al Ain that night at Audi Field.
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Trump was presented with a Juventus jersey and one for next year's World Cup, which the United States will be co-host with Canada and Mexico. But as Trump took questions from the media for about 15 minutes during the event, very little soccer was discussed.
Instead, the players stood behind him patiently — fidgeting now and then, their faces mainly expressionless — as Trump answered questions that mostly related to the potential of U.S. involvement in Israel's war against Iran.
Later that night, speaking to a different group of reporters after his team's 5-0 victory over Al Ain, Weah called the White House experience "a bit weird" and implied he and the other players weren't given the option of declining the visit.
Read more: Hiltzik: How Trump could sabotage L.A.'s World Cup and Olympics
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'They told us that we have to go and I had no choice but to go," said Weah, a U.S. men's national team member whose father George is a past winner of the prestigious France Football Ballon d'Or award and was the president of Liberia from 2018-2024. "So [I] showed up.'
FIFA declined to comment. The White House and Juventus did not respond to requests for comment from The Times.
While Weah said he thought his first White House visit "was a cool experience," he added that 'I'm not one for the politics, so it wasn't that exciting.'
'When [Trump] started talking about all the politics with Iran and everything, it's kind of like, I just want to play football, man,' Weah said.
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Fellow USMNT player McKennie had made critical comments about Trump during the Black Lives Matter movement in June 2020.
Juventus players Weston McKennie, left, and Tim Weah take a selfie outside the White House after they and other team members met with President Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)
'I don't think that Trump is the right one for the job as the president," McKennie said at the time. "I think he's ignorant. I don't support him a bit. I don't think he's a man to stand by his word. In my eyes, you can call him racist.'
Still, during his introductory comments, Trump briefly singled out Weah and McKennie as "my American players" when he mentioned that night's game.
"Good luck," he said while shaking both of their hands in what had the potential to be an awkward moment. "I hope you guys are the two best players on the field."
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Read more: Hernández: Dodgers visiting Trump's White House goes against everything they represent
That's not to say, however, that there weren't any awkward moments. Because there were — none more so than when Trump brought up "men playing in women's sports," then looked over his right shoulder and asked: "Could a woman make your team, fellas? Tell me. You think?"
When no players answered, Trump said, "You're being nice," then turned to face the other direction and asked the same question.
'We have a very good women's team,' Juventus general manager Damien Comolli replied.
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Trump asked, "But they should be playing with women, right?"
When he got no response, Trump smiled and turned back toward the reporters.
Read more: With FIFA World Cup one year away, fans and politicians still aren't sure what to expect
"See, they're very diplomatic," he said.
Trump made a couple of other attempts to involve the soccer contingent in the discussion. At one point, the president used the word "stealth" when discussing U.S. military planes, then turned around and remarked, "You guys want to be stealthy tonight. You can be stealthy — you'll never lose, right?"
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The players did not seem to respond.
For the final question of the session, a reporter favorably compared Trump's border policy to that of former President Biden and asked, "What do you attribute that success to?"
Trump looked behind him and stated, "See, that's what I call a good question, fellas."
Once again, the players did not appear to respond.
Read more: FIFA Club World Cup: Everything you need to know about all 32 teams
Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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