Chelsea lifted an imitation of the Club World Cup trophy — because the original is permanently housed in the Oval Office after being gifted to Donald Trump.
The US president has revealed that he was given the trophy by FIFA president Gianni Infantino during a visit to the White House in March.
After the final on Sunday, Trump helped present the medals to the players.
There was then some confusion when Trump joined the Chelsea players on stage for their trophy lift, yet it has now emerged that the Blues had not been presented with the original trophy because its permanent home is the Oval Office.
Speaking in an interview with DAZN before Chelsea faced Paris Saint-Germain in the final at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, Trump revealed: “They said, ‘Could you hold this trophy for a little while?’ We put it in the Oval Office.
“Then I said, ‘When are you going to pick up the trophy?’ He says, ‘We're never going to pick it up. You can have it forever in the Oval Office. We're making a new one.’
“And they actually made a new one. So that was quite exciting. It’s in the Oval right now.”
In the same interview, Trump quipped he could change the name of “soccer” to “football” in an executive order.
“They would call it football, but I guess we call it soccer,” Trump said.
After the reporter interviewing Trump suggested he write an executive order insisting the sport be called football, not soccer, the US president replied: “I think we could do that. I think I could do that.”
