Baffled Juventus players hit out at ‘weird’ meeting with Donald Trump

Juventus players have spoken out after meeting US President Donald Trump ahead of their first Club World Cup match on Wednesday.

The bizarre interaction occurred at the Oval Office – with FIFA president Gianni Infantino also present – and no explanation has been given as to why the gathering took place.

The players were pictured standing behind Trump – who was presented with a Juventus shirt – before he launched into a tirade on transgender athletes and Iran amid their conflict with Israel.

Juventus winger Timothy Weah has now broken his silence on Trump’s rant, admitting he had no idea that was how the afternoon was going to play out.

Following his team’s 5-0 win over Al-Ain on Wednesday night, Weah told reporters: ‘It was all a surprise to me, honestly – they told us that we have to go and I had no choice but to go.

‘I was caught by surprise, honestly. It was a bit weird. When he started talking about the politics with Iran and everything, it’s kind of like, I just want to play football man.

‘I guess it was a cool experience, obviously, being in the White House… as the first time, it’s always wonderful, but I’m not one for the politics, so it wasn’t that exciting.’

Weah is the son of former Ballon d’Or winner, George, who was also the President of Liberia between 2018 and 2024.

According to the New York Times, the Trump administration could expand their travel bans to 36 additional countries, including Liberia, ahead of next year’s World Cup in the US, Mexico and Canada.

Juventus and US midfielder Weston McKennie shook Trump’s hand at one point during the meeting, with Trump telling him and Weah ‘I hope you’re going to be the best two players on the field’.

But back in June 2020, McKennie told German outlet Bild: ‘I don’t think that Trump is the right one for the job as the president.’

He added: ‘In my eyes, you can call him racist.’

Juventus may have thought they were only going to speak about their Club World Cup campaign with Trump to try and ramp up interest in the tournament, but it quickly became apparent that was not going to be the case.

During one particularly awkward exchange, Trump asked the players: ‘Could a woman make your team, fellas?’

When general manager Damien Comolli pointed out that Juventus have a strong women’s team after winning Serie A last season, Trump retorted: ‘But they should be playing with women’ in an apparent jibe at the transgender community.

His attention quickly turned to Iran following escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Addressing how the US planned to respond to the conflict, Trump said: ‘Could the Iranian regime fall? Anything could happen.’

Trump finally did speak about football as he declared that Juventus’ match with Al-Ain later that evening was ‘totally’ sold out.

Infantino assured Trump that this was true as he replied ‘of course’ when asked if the stadium was going to be full.

The attendance given after the game was 18,161, almost 2,000 below the maximum stadium capacity of 20,000.

Empty seats have become a theme of the tournament after only a little over 3,000 fans watched Ulsan HD play Mamelodi Sundowns in a 25,500-seater stadium in Orlando earlier this week.