President Donald Trump thinks it's time for America to pick a side in the age-old "football vs. soccer" debate. And in his view, there's no debate at all.
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While accepting the FIFA Peace Prize during the draw for the 2026 World Cup, Trump leaned into the global conversation that always seems to flare up whenever the sport lands on American soil. Most of the world calls it football. The United States calls it soccer. And our version of "football" is something completely different.
Trump's solution? Rethink the name of the NFL entirely.
"When you look at what has happened to football in the United States, which is soccer in the United States, we seem to never call it [football] because we have a little bit of a conflict with another thing that's called football," Trump said on stage.
"But when you think about it, shouldn't it really be called ... this is football, there's no question about it. We have to come up with another name for the NFL. It really doesn't make sense when you think about it."
He's not wrong about how the language evolved. The term "soccer" actually came from England, where "association football" was shortened to "soccers" long before the U.S. adopted it.
Meanwhile, American-style gridiron football took off here, and the name "football" stuck long before the world's game gained traction.
By the time the U.S. Soccer Federation settled on its modern name in 1974, the NFL had already been the NFL for more than 50 years.
For now, both names aren't going anywhere. But with the 2026 World Cup coming to North America and global attention heading our way, Trump is pushing the conversation back into the spotlight.
And knowing how these debates go, fans on both sides probably won't be settling it anytime soon.
