US President Donald Trump joked during the 2026 World Cup draw on Friday that perhaps the name of American football should be changed to end the confusion in his country with the sport known as 'soccer'. 'If we look at football in the United States, soccer in the United States, it seems we never call it that, because we have a little conflict with another sport that is also called football,' Trump explained at the start of the draw, held at the Kennedy Center in Washington. 'But if you think about it, should it be called football? We need to find another name for the NFL,' the president said with a laugh, adding that he received the first FIFA Peace Prize this year for his mediation in various international conflicts. The Republican came onto the stage at the Kennedy Center to draw the ball corresponding to the United States, which as a host nation is seeded in Group D. He was accompanied by the heads of government of the other two host countries, Mexico's Claudia Sheinbaum and Canada's Mark Carney. Sheinbaum highlighted the honor it is for her country to be the only one to have hosted three World Cups and recalled that the ball game is played 'since ancestral times' in Mexico. Carney, for his part, emphasized that football has grown enormously in his country and has become the favorite sport of young Canadians.
