From Soccer to Football: Trump’s Pitch to Rewrite America’s Sporting Dictionary

President Donald Trump used the platform of the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw on Friday evening to call for a major change in American sports terminology, declaring that the sport universally known as football should finally be called “football” in the United States and that the National Football League may need a new name to avoid confusion. Speaking at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts the day after the expanded 48-team tournament’s groups were revealed, Trump told FIFA President Gianni Infantino and a global television audience that the current naming convention “really doesn’t make sense.”

“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 that because we have a little bit of a conflict with another thing that’s called football,” Trump said. “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.” The remarks drew laughter and applause from portions of the crowd, which included First Lady Melania Trump, members of the U.S. men’s and women’s national teams, and soccer officials from the three host nations.

The linguistic divide dates to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. British immigrants brought “association football” to America, where it competed for attention with the homegrown gridiron game. To distinguish the two, Americans shortened “association” to “soccer”, a term still used in Britain at the time. By 1913 the sport’s governing body was named the United States Football Association; it became the United States Soccer Football Association in 1945 and finally the United States Soccer Federation in 1974, reflecting the growing dominance of “football” as the exclusive property of the NFL in American culture.

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Trump’s suggestion arrives as soccer’s footprint in the United States has never been larger. Major League Soccer is expanding to 30 teams by 2025, the U.S. will co-host the 2026 World Cup with 16 venues on American soil, and the national team is preparing for a home tournament expected to shatter attendance records. The president’s comments, delivered hours after he received the FIFA Presidential Award for promoting peace through sport, quickly became a trending topic on social media, with reactions ranging from amusement to outright dismissal.

The NFL, which has used the “football” moniker since its founding as the American Professional Football Association in 1920 and rebranded to the National Football League in 1922, has shown no indication it would consider a name change. A league spokesperson declined to comment on Trump’s remarks when contacted Saturday morning.

Whether intended seriously or as ceremonial banter, Trump’s proposal underscores the cultural collision set to intensify over the next 18 months as the world’s most popular sport descends on a country that has long reserved the word “football” for an entirely different game. For now, both “soccer” and “football” appear likely to coexist when the first whistle blows in June 2026.

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