{"id":111696,"date":"2026-03-06T04:56:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T08:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/trump-praises-messi-and-compares-the-star-to-pele-at-the-white-house\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T04:56:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T08:56:00","slug":"trump-praises-messi-and-compares-the-star-to-pele-at-the-white-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/nationals\/trump-praises-messi-and-compares-the-star-to-pele-at-the-white-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump praises Messi and compares the star to Pel\u00e9 at the White House"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Trump Praises Messi and Compares His Impact to Pel\u00e9<\/h2>\n\n\nFormer U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed Inter Miami CF to the White House, celebrating their recent Major League Soccer championship. During the ceremony, Trump did not hold back in his praise for Lionel Messi, the team&#8217;s captain, even going so far as to compare him to Brazilian legend Pel\u00e9.\n\nThe visit is part of the American tradition of honoring the champion teams of the major professional leagues. This occasion marked the first time Trump received the MLS champion during his term.\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n\n<p>\u201cI shouldn&#8217;t say this because then they&#8217;ll say I&#8217;m old, but I saw Pel\u00e9 play when he was in the Cosmos. He was very good, but I think you could be better,\u201d the president said while addressing Messi in front of those present.<\/p>\n\n<cite>Donald Trump<\/cite>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\nDuring the event, Trump reminisced about his experience watching Pel\u00e9 play for the New York Cosmos, but made clear his admiration for the Argentinian star.\n\nInter Miami gifted the former president several presents, including a personalized jersey with his last name and the number 47, referencing his position as the forty-seventh president of the United States. They also gave him a commemorative ball and watch.\n\nTrump also highlighted Messi&#8217;s influence since his arrival in American soccer, emphasizing the pressure he faced as the team&#8217;s main figure.\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;ve seen great players come to the United States with a lot of expectation, but they don&#8217;t always win. This kid came with all the hype and won,\u201d the leader stated. \u201cYou came with a lot of pressure and still achieved it, and that&#8217;s something very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<cite>Donald Trump<\/cite>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\nJorge Mas, president of Inter Miami, also spoke at the ceremony, highlighting the organization&#8217;s audacity in signing Messi.\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n\n<p>&#8220;Many thought it was impossible to bring the best player in the world to our team. Today we have him here and it is a source of pride for our institution,&#8221; he stated.<\/p>\n\n<cite>Jorge Mas<\/cite>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\nInter Miami secured their first MLS title last December, just five years after their league debut in 2020, marking a significant milestone in the club&#8217;s history.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump Praises Messi and Compares His Impact to Pel\u00e9 Former U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed Inter Miami CF to the White House, celebrating their recent Major League Soccer championship. During the ceremony, Trump did not hold back in his praise for Lionel Messi, the team&#8217;s captain, even going so far as to compare him to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[997],"tags":[257,1427,152,942],"class_list":{"0":"post-111696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nationals","8":"tag-inter-miami","9":"tag-messi","10":"tag-mls","11":"tag-trump"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}