U.S. President Donald Trump joined Chelsea on stage Sunday night as the team celebrated a stunning 3-0 victory over Paris Saint-Germain to win the FIFA Club World Cup at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

With Trump watching from the stands, Cole Palmer delivered a standout performance, scoring twice and assisting another, as the underdog Blues dismantled the Champions League holders in front of a crowd of 81,118.

After the final whistle, Trump appeared alongside FIFA President Gianni Infantino for the trophy presentation, drawing some boos from sections of the crowd. He handed the trophy to Chelsea captain Reece James, then lingered on stage despite Infantino’s apparent gesture for him to step aside.

Unfazed, Trump remained in position as James hoisted the trophy and the team launched into their celebrations under a cascade of 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,” James said afterward.

Asked what Trump 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 appeared bemused by the moment.

“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,” Palmer said. “I was a bit confused, yes.”

Palmer scored two first-half goals and set up Joao Pedro for the third, as Chelsea defied the odds in New Jersey to stun the reigning European champions.

Chelsea’s victory capped FIFA’s newly expanded 32-team tournament and earned the Premier League side a prize of more than 90 million pounds (about $121 million).

Trump said he enjoyed the occasion, telling broadcaster DAZN at halftime, “I am having a really great time. Tremendous sport.”

In a longer interview broadcast after the match, Trump revealed that his favorite player of all time is Pele and offered praise for the tournament.

“It’s a big thing,” he said. “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 asked if he would consider issuing an executive order to rename the sport “football,” Trump replied with a smile, “I think we could do that. I think I could do that.”

Trump was also asked whether he sees a future in which the U.S., set to co-host the men’s World Cup with Canada and Mexico next summer, could dominate in football.

“I can tell you we’re doing very well on the other stage – on the political stage, on the final stage,” he said. “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.”

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Jannik Sinner held nothing back as he avenged his Roland Garros heartbreak, rallying past Carlos Alcaraz to capture his first Wimbledon title on Sunday.

Just five weeks after Alcaraz saved three match points in a French Open thriller, the world No. 1 flipped the script on Centre Court – digging deep to outlast his Spanish rival 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in a gritty, three-hour battle.

Sinner, now the first Italian to win a Wimbledon singles crown, delivered a performance brimming with poise and purpose, finishing the job nearly 2 1/2 hours quicker than their marathon in Paris.

“I think this is the part I’m the proudest of because it really has not been easy,” said Sinner, who returned to the tour in May after serving a three-month doping ban.

“I always tried to be honest with me and had the self-talk too – what if, what if? I always tried to accept it. Things can happen.

“I believe if you lose a Grand Slam final that way, it’s much better like this than someone kills you. Then after, you keep going, keep pushing.

“I did a lot of intensity in every practice because I felt like I could play very good. That’s why I also said after Roland Garros that it’s not the time to put me down, because another Grand Slam is coming up, and I did great here.”

The victory puts their rivalry back on a knife’s edge, with the 23-year-old now trailing Alcaraz only by five Slam titles to four and snapping a five-match losing streak against the Spaniard.

It is also Sinner’s first Slam title away from his favored hard courts, while Alcaraz suffered his first major final defeat, unable to summon the same magic that had brought him back from the brink on clay.

A penny for the thoughts, meanwhile, of Grigor Dimitrov, who led Sinner by two sets to love in the fourth round – only for his body to give out.

Australian Darren Cahill, who has coached Sinner for the past three years, said: “We didn’t speak about Roland Garros within 24 hours after the match, because the way he played, the attitude that he had on court, the effort that he gave – it was faultless – and he was just beaten by a better player in the end.

“I think you could see from the first match he played that he wasn’t carrying any baggage from Roland Garros.

“That’s not easy to do. It’s easy for us to say that in words – to put it to one side – but for the player to wipe it away and be able to come here with the mentality that he had is 100 percent credit to him.”

Alcaraz said he expected Sinner to reset quickly and come at him again.

“He didn’t surprise me at all. Champions learn from the losses,” Alcaraz said. “I knew at the beginning that he was going to learn from that final, not going to make the same mistakes. The way he played today, it was really, really high.”

There was an audible buzz around Centre Court as the pair warmed up – the sound of 15,000 people who couldn’t believe their luck at having secured one of the hottest tickets in sports.

Alcaraz fought back from 4-2 down to win the opening set, finishing it with a classic point where he turned defense into attack and somehow scrambled a backhand winner.

But most of the champagne moments came from Sinner, who, at one point, was nearly struck by an errant cork.

After breaking in the opening game, Sinner closed the second set with three outstanding winners. In the third, he stunned the crowd with a tweener drop volley.

Alcaraz was left on the floor as Sinner broke through in the third to lead 5-4, and he had one hand on the trophy after moving further ahead early in the fourth.

The crowd willed Alcaraz to conjure a Paris-style recovery, and the 22-year-old had two chances at 4-3, but this time it was Sinner’s day.

“Today was important not just because it was a Grand Slam final, not just because it was Wimbledon, and not just because Carlos had won the last five matches against him,” Cahill said.

“He needed that win today. Today’s match I think was a match of moments – of just who was going to step up in the big moment and make something happen. At Roland Garros it was Carlos, and today it was Jannik. So we could not be more proud of him.”

Like Sinner five weeks ago, Alcaraz found the positives.

“It’s always a bad feeling losing matches. I think it’s a little bit even worse when you lose in a final,” he said. “Overall, I’m just really proud about everything I’ve done the last four weeks on grass here in London. I left the court with my head really, really, really high because I did everything that I could today.”

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Once labeled long shots, Chelsea shrugged off the odds – and Paris Saint-Germain – to claim the FIFA Club World Cup crown in dominant fashion.

Cole Palmer starred under the global spotlight, netting twice and adding an assist in a blistering first half that powered the Blues past PSG 3-0 in Sunday’s final.

The 23-year-old winger struck in the 22nd and 30th minutes before setting up Joao Pedro’s goal just before halftime with a slick pass into the box. At the other end, goalkeeper Robert Sanchez delivered his finest performance of the tournament, stopping six shots to keep PSG at bay.

Chelsea’s road to glory included knockout wins over Benfica, Palmeiras and Fluminense. It marked their second Club World Cup title, adding to the 2021 triumph – this time against a PSG side fresh off its first UEFA Champions League title just six weeks earlier.

The European champions had allowed just one goal in their first six matches of the tournament. But on Sunday, PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma saved only two of five shots on goal.

The frustrated Parisians were reduced to 10 men in the 85th minute when Joao Neves pulled Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella by the hair. A video review confirmed the foul, and Neves was shown a red card.

Altercations spilled past the final whistle, and PSG coach Luis Enrique appeared to grab Pedro’s neck while he and Donnarumma confronted Chelsea players.

“This was completely avoidable at the end,” Enrique said through a translator. “My goal was always to separate footballers. There was a lot of tension and pressure, there was a whole bunch of pushing that we should all try to avoid. My intention was to prevent it from getting worse.”

The final capped a monthlong tournament with 32 teams representing six continents – a test run for the United States before it co-hosts next year’s World Cup with Canada and Mexico.

President Donald Trump attended the final as a guest of FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Trump presented Chelsea with the trophy and remained on stage to celebrate with the club.

In his first year as manager, Enzo Maresca guided the Blues to a 2025-26 Champions League berth and two trophies – the Club World Cup and the UEFA Conference League.

“I’m especially happy for the players, because just one year ago when I came to the club, I said in the first press conference … we said many times that talent is not enough,” Maresca said. “We need sacrifice, we need readiness, we need a game plan with all the players going in the same direction. The success is because of them.”

Cucurella made a crucial stop to keep the match scoreless in the 16th minute. Fabian Ruiz delivered a sharp pass across the box to Desire Doue, who could have shot but instead tried a centering pass to a teammate that Cucurella intercepted.

Six minutes later, Palmer, whose first attempt barely missed wide left in the eighth minute, opened the scoring.

Malo Gusto picked up a wayward header from PSG’s Nuno Mendes and ran into the box. After a slick dribble to create space, his shot was blocked right back to his feet. He then fed Palmer, who fired a left-footed shot into the bottom left corner.

Levi Colwill earned the assist on the second goal with a long ball downfield to Palmer. From there, Palmer calmly dribbled toward the center of the 18-yard box and delivered another low left-footer for a near-identical finish.

In the 43rd minute, Palmer threaded a pass between two defenders for Pedro, who chipped his shot over a sprawling Donnarumma’s right shoulder.

Sanchez dove to stop Neves’ stoppage-time header just before the goal line. His heroics continued in the second half, as he swatted away a close-range effort from Ousmane Dembele.

Palmer was named Player of the Tournament. His three goals and two assists – all in the knockout stage – tied for the most goal contributions of any player.

Speaking to broadcaster DAZN after the match, Palmer praised Maresca’s game plan and said he had to “repay” the manager by scoring.

“He’s building something special, something important,” Palmer said. “We’re a young team. … I feel like we’re going in the right direction.”

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As the first edition of the expanded Club World Cup wrapped up Sunday, FIFA President Gianni Infantino is calling it a major success, even as the football world adjusts to the reality of a flawed tournament likely here to stay.

Infantino’s flagship competition – initially supposed to be launched in 2021 before the pandemic intervened – was derided by many, especially in Europe, before it kicked off.

It was seen as an unnecessary addition to a crowded calendar, while there were also doubts as to whether it would win over the public.

Even after it began, former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp dismissed the competition as the “worst idea ever implemented in football.”

However, the last month in the United States has shown that such a viewpoint is surely an exaggeration.

FIFA has earned criticism for the number of empty seats at many matches, but fans have turned out, with around 2.5 million attending games across the country.

South American supporters in particular helped create vibrant and colorful atmospheres and the average crowd of almost 39,000 before Sunday’s final between Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea was just below that of the English Premier League last season.

“The decisive factor is if the fans like it or not, and the attendances were much higher than expected,” insisted Arsene Wenger, FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development.

“I don’t share the opinion of Jurgen Klopp at all because I feel a real Club World Cup is needed and if you ask all the clubs who were here at this competition, I am sure all of them would want to do it again.”

What they would prefer not to have to deal with again is the kind of temperatures that come with playing during the afternoon in a North American summer.

Many matches were impacted by the heat and several faced long delays due to thunderstorm warnings.

That looks set to cause major headaches for FIFA at the World Cup in North America next year.

“Playing in these temperatures is very dangerous, and obviously for the spectacle … the pace of play is not the same, it slows everything down,” complained Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez.

That can be looked at for future tournaments, but it will surely be harder for FIFA to do anything about the dominance of Europe’s leading clubs.

Europe provided both finalists but did not have things all its own way, with Fluminense of Brazil flying the flag for the rest of the world.

They knocked out Inter Milan en route to reaching the semi-finals, while fellow Brazilians Palmeiras got to the last eight along with Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal.

Further extension?

The majority of the tournament’s huge $1 billion prize fund still went to European teams, but the money distributed to competing clubs from around the world could give them a better chance of keeping their best players for longer.

Infantino accepts that his tournament would be a greater draw if more of Europe’s biggest names were involved but insists it will remain open to clubs from around the globe – even if that means mismatches like Auckland City losing 10-0 to Bayern Munich.

“Auckland represents to some extent 99.9% of all players, who would like to be like them but will never have the chance – there must be a place for everyone,” he said.

“Of course I would have liked to have Liverpool here, Arsenal, Manchester United, Barcelona, Tottenham, AC Milan, Napoli … but you have to qualify.”

Adding more games – up to seven for the finalists – to an already crowded calendar is problematic.

Nevertheless, the determination of PSG to go all the way following their Champions League triumph, or Manchester City’s disappointment when they went out, suggests that they were fully invested.

“We are very used to not having holidays unfortunately, because the schedule is crazy,” City’s Bernardo Silva said after his team’s quarterfinal exit.

“But when we are in a competition, we take it very seriously and we had a lot of ambition for this Club World Cup.”

And there will be another Club World Cup, even if Infantino has so far played down suggestions the tournament could be immediately expanded further, and staged more often.

“It will happen every four years, it is planned, and the next edition is in 2029,” said Wenger.

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For weeks while back home in Warsaw last year, Iga Swiatek hung out with friends and made new ones, but didn’t dare tell them about a doping case that was hanging over her.

“Obviously, in the back of my mind,” she said Saturday evening at the All England Club, “I had this thing.”

There was more going on, too, and she only opened up to her family and her team. A coaching change. A long-for-her title drought. A ranking drop. Her grandfather’s passing.

“It all (happened) together,” Swiatek said. “It wasn’t easy.”

And so, in some ways, the Wimbledon championship Swiatek claimed Saturday with a 6-0, 6-0 victory – yes, read that score again – in 57 minutes over Amanda Anisimova could be viewed as more than merely a significant on-court result.

It mattered, of course, that she finally conquered grass courts, in general, and that venue, in particular. The 24-year-old from Poland became the youngest woman with at least one major trophy on all three surfaces since 2002, when Serena Williams did it at age 20. That Swiatek now needs only an Australian Open title to complete a career Grand Slam.

In the bigger picture, though, this triumph followed a difficult 12-plus months and provided the following takeaway, in Swiatek’s words: “The lesson is just that even when you feel like you’re not on a good path, you can always get back to it if you put enough effort and you have good people around you.”

There was a not-long-ago stretch in which she was considered far and away the best in women’s tennis.

“She’s an unbelievable player,” Anisimova said.

Swiatek held the No. 1 ranking for most of the past three seasons. She put together a 37-match winning streak in 2022 that included six tournament titles until it ended – where else? – at Wimbledon.

She won five Grand Slam titles, four on the red clay at the French Open and one on the hard courts at the U.S. Open, and established herself as a bona fide star.

Except there was always the matter of what went on when she played on grass. Zero titles. Zero finals. One quarterfinal run at the All England Club.

The questions kept arising, from herself and from others. Then those doubts spread to other events and other surfaces.

She left the 2024 Olympics, held at Roland-Garros, with a bronze medal after losing in the semifinals. She departed Wimbledon last year in the third round, the U.S. Open in the quarterfinals. She exited the French Open last month in the semifinals, ending her bid for a fourth consecutive championship there.

In all, Swiatek went more than a year without reaching a final anywhere.

Then there was the matter of a one-month doping ban she accepted after failing an out-of-competition drug test. The International Tennis Integrity Agency accepted her explanation that the result was unintentional and caused by the contamination of a non-prescription medication she was taking for issues with jet lag and sleeping.

“The second half of last year was extremely challenging for me, especially due to the positive doping test and how circumstances completely beyond my control took away my chance to fight for the highest sport goals at the end of the season,” Swiatek wrote in a social media post in March, adding that the episode “forced me to rearrange certain things within myself.”

Eventually, Swiatek was able to Saturday, “I came back to being my old kind of self,” even if she still is “way more scared about eating something that will be contaminated.”

On June 12, a month to the day before facing Anisimova – Swiatek checked her phone’s calendar to be sure – and a week after her 26-match French Open winning streak came to a close, it was time to get to work.

Swiatek headed to the Spanish island of Mallorca to practice on grass. Next was a trip to Germany for more training before entering a tournament there. She made it all the way to that final before losing and tearing up during the post-match ceremony.

Two weeks later, at Wimbledon, Swiatek was all smiles, and as she left her last interview of the day, she joked: “That was a good therapy session.”

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Marc Marquez cemented his status as the “King of Sachsenring” on Sunday by winning the German Grand Prix in his 200th MotoGP start, a grueling race that saw only 10 riders reach the finish line.

Marquez’s ninth MotoGP victory at the Sachsenring stretched his championship lead over brother Alex, who finished second, to 83 points, while Marc’s teammate Francesco Bagnaia finished third to sit 147 points behind.

Alex had started fifth on the grid and took second in his 100th MotoGP start despite still recovering from a fractured hand he suffered at the Dutch Grand Prix two weeks ago that required surgery.

Several riders crashed over the course of the race, especially at turn one, including VR46 Racing’s Fabio Di Giannantonio and Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi when they were in second place.

But the day belonged to Marc as he marked his latest triumph at his favorite hunting ground by standing on his bike and doing a jig as he passed the chequered flag – a fourth straight weekend where he had won both the sprint and the race.

“One more (win at the Sachsenring) was super special. From the beginning, I felt good, the confidence when I started the weekend was super high because we were coming from three victories in a row,” Marc said.

“We are in an incredible moment. Now we can say that half the season is done. Now (the second) half, we still need to be super concentrated.”

Marc had clinched his seventh pole position of the season Saturday before winning a wet sprint despite a mistake at the first turn, but this time he had the dream start to take the lead into turn one ahead of Bezzecchi and Di Giannantonio.

As Marc slowly but surely started to stretch his lead, he was unaware of the battles for position behind him as Bezzecchi and Di Giannantonio swapped places while Alex and Pedro Acosta fought for fourth place on the sweeping corners.

Acosta became the third rider to crash early on after Lorenzo Savadori and Miguel Oliveira, with the young Spaniard gesturing at his fallen machine in frustration.

Di Giannantonio had broken the lap record in Friday’s practice and given Marc a tough time early in the sprint.

But the Italian was unable to push any harder to catch up to Marc, who found a comfortable rhythm and pace to surge more than two seconds ahead despite easing off the throttle on two laps to conserve his tires.

As Marc’s lead stretched to more than three seconds, Di Giannantonio’s challenge came to an end on the downhill braking zone on turn one when he lost control and crashed, with his bike tumbling across the gravel while he escaped unhurt.

LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco, who started second on the grid before getting pushed down the order, crashed at the same turn seconds later.

Bezzecchi had moved up to second but the Aprilia rider also bit the dust on the very next lap at turn one, moving Alex up to second while Bagnaia suddenly found himself in the podium positions.

“I tried to give my 100%. Also, I was a little bit lucky because (riders) sliding in front of me crashed. But this is racing, so you need to be there,” said Alex, holding an ice pack on his left hand.

“Today, it was important to survive … So I’m really, really happy. It’s unbelievable to be here (after surgery).”

The crashes did not end there as Trackhouse Racing’s Ai Ogura lost his balance on turn one and ended up taking out Honda’s Joan Mir in the process, leaving only 10 of the 18 starters.

Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo finished fourth ahead of Alex’s Gresini Racing teammate Fermin Aldeguer.

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