Trump Praises Referee at World Cup Final with Spain's Victory
The 2026 World Cup ended with Spain back on football’s throne and a political heavyweight watching from the front row.
Staged across North America, the tournament built towards a heavyweight final on July 19: Euro 2024 champions Spain against Lionel Messi’s Argentina. A clash of styles, a clash of eras – and, in the end, decided by a single strike.
Ferran Torres delivered it. One clean finish, one decisive moment, and Spain claimed their first World Cup since 2010.
High above the pitch, cameras tracked every angle. On the turf, one camera offered something different. Referee Slavko Vincic wore a body cam for the showpiece, capturing his view of the biggest game on the planet.
That footage, shared by The Athletic, revealed a series of snapshots from inside the storm. Vincic could be heard telling Messi to “control” a teammate as tensions flickered. The stakes were enormous, the emotions raw, and the referee’s job as unforgiving as ever.
When the final whistle went and Spain’s players sank to their knees in celebration, Vincic’s night was not quite over. Like the players, the officials were ushered towards the podium, climbing the steps to greet FIFA president Gianni Infantino and US President Donald Trump, who attended the final.
There, another small moment unfolded.
As Trump placed a medal around Vincic’s neck, he leaned in with a brief verdict on the referee’s performance, telling him he had done a “great job” – repeating the praise a second time as the official moved along the line.
Trump then stayed on the podium as the medals continued to be handed out. The stage, though, belonged to Spain. When the time came for the new world champions to lift the trophy, the President was moved aside to clear space for the traditional celebration shot: captain, cup, confetti.
The political thread didn’t end there.
In the aftermath of the tournament, Torres – the match-winner and new national hero – was spotted during Spain’s celebrations wearing a red cap emblazoned with the slogan “Make Spain Great Again.” The phrase was an unmistakable echo of Trump’s own “Make America Great Again” branding.
Trump later picked up on the image and spoke about it publicly, framing the cap as a nod towards his own movement.
“He is a great player,” Trump said of Torres. “He was wearing essentially a Make America Great Again cap, so it was a nice tribute. And I think he meant that very nicely; we appreciate it.
“We have, we've made America great. We're the greatest country in the world now. I will say this, we, a year and a half ago, two years ago, this country was in deep trouble.”
On the pitch, 2026 will be remembered in Spain for Torres’ goal and a second star stitched onto the shirt. Off it, the final left behind a different kind of snapshot: a referee’s-eye view of history, a President on the podium, and a World Cup winner in a cap that kept the political conversation rolling long after the confetti had settled.
