Mark Carney, Canadian PM / Video Grab Courtesy:X@MarkJCarney

Members of the FIFA World Cup 2026 champion Spain team, in their joyous moment, preferred to give a go-by to the tradition of a group photograph with the chief guest of the awards ceremony at New Jersey Stadium in New York yesterday.

Though President Donald Trump went up to team players on the dais to congratulate them on winning the trophy, no one evinced any interest in asking him or requesting a photograph with him. The president stopped for a while and even looked back before FIFA President Gianni Infantino took him away.

While nothing was said as to whether it was their excitement of winning the trophy or an intentional skip of tradition, it did stir controversy.

Spain has a reason for its “polite” snub of the chief guest for his recent statements at the NATO summit, where Spain was targeted and threatened with his usual weapon, “tariffs.”

This was just a whiff of politics that had blanketed the just-concluded FIFA World Cup. It was for the first time that games of the biggest FIFA World Cup were spread across three nations. It was also for the first time that FIFA World Cup men's games were held on Canadian soil.

“It has really been an extraordinary journey for all Canadians. The World Cup itself, in terms of sport, was remarkable. It was a huge step forward for Canadian soccer or football or whatever we call it. But what is clear is that Canada is a soccer nation,” said Adam van Koeverden, Canada's secretary of state for sport. Adam has been an Olympian himself.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and his wife, Diana Fox Carney, watched the final match from a glassed suite along with President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, while FIFA President Gianni Infantino was in their august company.

Call it an anticlimax rendezvous as Donald Trump refused to renew a trilateral trade agreement involving three longtime partners, the U.S., Canada and Mexico, earlier this month. Donald Trump wanted certain changes, suggesting that instead of trilateral, it should be bilateral agreements between the U.S. and Canada on one hand and the U.S. and Mexico on the other to make them more flexible and practical.

Trade and political differences apart, the three co-host nations had no choice but to be together for the 48-nation, 39-day and 104-match mega event that would go down in history as the biggest-ever FIFA event anywhere.

Politics had cast its spell. Even before the event reached its gold medal stage, Donald Trump held out another threat to increase tariffs on Canada for its failure to control wildfires raging in the neighboring Ontario province.

Leaving aside the internal politics of the three co-hosts, there were issues related to immigration, trade and global politics. Iran, one of the 48 qualifiers, wanted its games to be shifted from U.S. venues to Mexico for obvious reasons. The request was turned down.

A new chapter was added to the world of competitive sports when a participating nation was granted limited-time visas to come, play and return after its games. Iranians were not permitted to travel from their base in Tijuana, Mexico, to Los Angeles for its group matches against New Zealand and Belgium. It was only for the third and final group game against Egypt that Iranians were allowed into the U.S. two days before the game in Seattle.

Interestingly, players wore armbands saying “Football unites” people in all 104 games.

And when the final match was played, Mark Carney took to his social media handles, saying how hundreds of thousands of football lovers were out on the streets across Canada to cheer on Canada.

He praised the Canadian national team that scripted more than one chapter of history by lodging not only the country's first-ever point in the FIFA World Cup by holding Bosnia and Herzegovina to a 1-1 draw but also by recording its first-ever win in the tournament against Qatar (by a huge margin, 6-0) and then making the round of 32 where it again played superbly to defeat South Africa to make the round of 16, the same as was done by the other co-hosts, Mexico and the U.S.

“Our team and our fans showed the world that Canada belongs on any pitch, against any team. Canada’s soccer journey is just beginning. The best is yet to come,” he said.

He issued the following statement: “Today, the FIFA World Cup comes to a close. Canada had the honor of co-hosting this historic tournament alongside Mexico and the United States, marking the first time men’s World Cup matches were played in Canada.

“Canadians will be talking about our team’s performance on the pitch for generations. The Men’s National Team’s first-ever win at the World Cup. Our first-ever knockout win and our first match in the Round of 16. The team personified resilience and grit. Jonathan David’s hat trick. Ismaël Koné going down injured; Nathan Saliba coming on, taking a free kick, scoring, and holding up Ismaël’s shirt in celebration. Stephen Eustáquio’s 92nd-minute winner against South Africa. Team Canada united the country, showing extraordinary character and showing the world that Canada belongs on any pitch against any team.

“Hundreds of thousands of fans packed the streets of Vancouver, Toronto, and across the country. Canadians watched the beautiful game at stadiums, fan festivals, hotels, sports bars, and living rooms. The World Cup created tens of thousands of jobs, generated lasting economic benefits, and welcomed the world to Canada.

“While today marks the end of the World Cup, it marks the start of a new chapter in Canadian soccer and in Canadian sport. To build on this momentum, our government is making the largest-ever investment in sport, with $1 billion to improve access to sport, to upgrade stadiums, fields, and local parks, and to provide talent with resources to get from the playground to the podium. We are backing the Canada Soccer National Training Centre to create a permanent national home for soccer so the next Alphonso Davies or Christine Sinclair has the opportunities they need. As fans, we can support our local soccer teams and our national team, not just every four years but year in, year out.

“Canada’s soccer journey is just beginning. The best is yet to come,” the statement said.

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