City Council passed legislation Thursday to restore the abandoned Greyhound terminal on Filbert Street as Philadelphia’s new intercity bus station in time for an expected flood of tourists in 2026.
Under the measure, the Philadelphia Parking Authority will operate the station on behalf of the city, collecting fees from bus companies to pay costs.
A refurbished facility is scheduled to open in May 2026, which would resolve more than twoyears of chaos after Greyhound ended its lease, forcing the city to allow the bus companies to operate at the curbs of public streets with few amenities and no shelter for riders.
The saga was embarrassing, and it became more untenable for city leaders with Philadelphia set to host celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and a round of international FIFA World Cup soccer matches.
The plan came together over the last few months as at least three city departments collaborated and reached an agreement with the parking authority. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration sent a bill to Council.
Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr. said in a Finance Committee hearing last week that he found the speed of “galvanized” departments working together impressive.
“You can’t put that genie back in the bottle. I know you can cooperate now, and that’s going to be the expectation from now on,” Jones said.
Greyhound ran the terminal at 10th and Filbert Streets for 35 years but ended its lease in June 2023 as the bus line (and its corporate parent) began shedding real estate and leases in the U.S. to cut costs.
First, the buses operated along the 600 block of Market Street. Since November 2023 they have loaded and unloaded passengers in the open along Spring Garden Street.
“This is an opportunity that kind of came from the heavens,” said Mike Carroll, the city’s assistant managing director for transportation.
Bus companies would pay a $40 fee for each stop in the city until the terminal is open, when it would be increased to $65. A smaller number of buses subsidized by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation under a program to provide rural service would pay $16 a stop.
Operating the renovated terminal will cost $4.7 million to $4.8 million annually, Carroll said.
City officials say they plan to keep researching other possible locations for an intercity bus station but note the lease provides stability.
PPA will provide 24-7 security, 16-hour daily custodial coverage, maintenance staff, and an on-site program manager under terms of an intergovernmental agreement with the city that is part of the legislation.
It also will be responsible for enforcing rules, such as one that will require buses to bypass the heart of Chinatown.
Since the parking authority regulates rideshare and taxi services, its enforcement officers will help keep traffic flowing around the station, officials said.
Councilmember Nina Ahmad pressed city officials to plan for retail tenants and other ways to generate municipal revenue.
“There’s an element of rush,” Ahmad said during the Dec. 3 hearing. “I understand the urgency, but I hope we don’t overlook things that we should be doing to make it really a transit-oriented development.”
Philly is getting ready to dress itself up — with Liberty Bells. Lots of Liberty Bells.
Organizers of Philadelphia’s yearlong celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary in 2026 gathered in a frigid Philadelphia School District warehouse in Logan on Tuesday, offering a special preview of the 20 large replica Liberty Bells that will decorate Philly neighborhoods for the national milestone.
Designed by 16 local artists selected through Mural Arts Philadelphia — and planned for commercial corridors and public parks everywhere from Chinatown and South Philly to West Philly and Wynnefield — the painted bells depict the histories, heroes, cultures, and traditions of Philly neighborhoods.
As part of the state nonprofit America250PA’s “Bells Across PA” program, more than 100 painted bells will be installed across Pennsylvania throughout the national milestone, also known as the Semiquincentennial. Local planners and Mural Arts Philadelphia helped coordinate the Philly bells.
“As Philadelphia’s own Liberty Bell served as inspiration for this statewide program, it makes sense that Philly would take it to the next level and bring these bells to as many neighborhoods as possible,” Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said in a statement. “We are a proud, diverse city of neighborhoods with many stories to tell.”
Kathryn Ott Lovell, president and CEO of Philadelphia250, the city’s planning partner for the Semiquincentennial, said the bells are a key part of the local planners’ efforts to bring the party to every Philly neighborhood.
Local artist Bob Dix paints a portrait of industrialist Henry Disston on his bell.
“The personalities of the neighborhoods are coming out in the bells,” she said, adding that the completed bells will be dedicated in January, then installed in early spring, in time for Philly’s big-ticket events next summer, including six FIFA World Cup matches, the MLB All-Star Game, and a pumped-up Fourth of July concert.
Planners released a full list of neighborhoods where the bells will be placed, but said exact locations will be announced in January. Each of the nearly 3-foot bells — which will be perched on heavy black pedestals — was designed in collaboration with community members, Ott Lovell said.
Inside the massive, makeshift studio behind the Widener Memorial School on Tuesday, artists worked in the chill on their bells. Each bell told a different story of neighborhood pride.
Chenlin Cai (left) talks with fellow artist Emily Busch (right) about his bell, showing her concepts on his tablet.
Cindy Lozito, 33, a muralist and illustrator who lives in Bella Vista, didn’t have to look for inspiration for her bell on the Italian Market. She lives just a block away from Ninth Street and is a market regular.
After talking with merchants, she strove to capture the market’s iconic sites, history, and diversity. Titled Always Open, her bell includes painted scenes of the market’s bustling produce stands and flickering fire barrels, the smiling faces of old-school merchants and newer immigrant vendors, and the joy of the street’s annual Procession of Saints and Day of the Dead festivities. Also, of course, the greased pole.
“It’s a place where I can walk outside my house and get everything that I need, and also a place where people know your name and care about you,” she said, painting her bell.
For her bell on El Centro de Oro, artist and educator Symone Salib, 32, met twice with 30 community members from North Fifth Street and Lehigh Avenue, asking them for ideas.
“From there, I had a very long list,” she said. “People really liked telling me what they wanted to see and what they did not.”
Local artist Symone Salib talks with a visitor as she works on her bell.
Titled The Golden Block, the striking yellow-and-black bell depicts the neighborhood’s historic Stetson Hats factory, the long-standing Latin music shop Centro Musical, and popular iron palm tree sculptures.
To add that extra bit of authenticity to his bell depicting Glen Foerd, artist Bob Dix, 62, mixed his paints with water bottled from the Delaware River, near where the historic mansion and estate sits perched in Torresdale, overlooking the mouth of Poquessing Creek.
“I like to incorporate the spirit of the area,” he said, dabbing his brush in the river water. “I think it’s important to bring in the natural materials.”
Local artist Bob Dix displays waters he collected from the Delaware River and Poquessing Creek to use in his painting of one of 20 replica Liberty Bells representing different neighborhoods Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025.
Planners say they expect the bells to draw interest and curiosity similar to the painted donkeys that dotted Philadelphia neighborhoods during the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
Ott Lovell said organizers will install the bells around March to protect them from the worst of the winter weather.
“I don’t want any weather on them,” she said with a smile. “I want them looking perfect for 2026.”
The first World Cup I remember was in 1970. I was a kid in Guatemala, and my brothers and I were so excited. It was the year the Brazilian seleção included Pelé, Jairzinho, Rivellino, Tostão, Gérson, and Zé Maria — there may be no more beautiful example of the sport of soccer than what they showed us.
The Guatemalan team was not in the World Cup that year (or ever 😢), but El Salvador was, and although they were unlikely to advance very far, we felt a lot of Central American solidarity and rooted for them — the underdoggiest of the underdogs.
Philly’s Haitian community doesn’t care if it’s a little lopsided.
“Most Haitians adore Brazil,” the Rev. Dr. Josephys Dafils told me via email, “and now Haiti will face the mighty Brazil on American soil. This is the thrill and magic of soccer. Haitians and Haitian Americans will travel to be part of this historic moment. Many of us will gather for a tailgate celebration outside the stadium, even without tickets, which are extremely expensive. We will bring food, music, vendors, and a traditional Haitian band called rara.”
Numa St. Louis agreed: “For Haitian Americans, this event is more than just a game; it’s a moment of immense pride and emotion. As a Haitian American and die-hard soccer fan, the feelings that arise from witnessing Haiti step onto the world stage are overwhelming. It represents a long-cherished dream; a chance for a nation often faced with adversity to showcase its talent, passion, and spirit on an international platform.”
“The joy of supporting Haiti, coupled with the opportunity to share the occasion with Brazilian fans,” he told me via email, “underscores the camaraderie found in the beautiful game.”
Dafils, who at one time served as a youth soccer coach in Haiti, said that for the national team to make it to the World Cup at all, they had to overcome almost insurmountable obstacles.
“Armed groups have taken control of nearly 85% of [Haiti’s] capital, as well as major cities across the country. More than one million Haitians have been forced to flee their homes,” he said. “Many people no longer have access to electricity, clean running water, or food. Families are constantly moving from one neighborhood to another in search of safety. [And] amid this dire situation, the Haitian national soccer team has accomplished the extraordinary.”
An example of that? They had to play all the qualifying matches outside of Haiti.
Haiti’s Leverton Pierre controls the ball during a CONCACAF Gold Cup soccer match in June against the United States in Arlington, Texas.
“I have cried tears of joy since Nov. 18, 2025 — the day Haiti qualified for the 2026 World Cup,” Dafils told me. “Nov. 18 also marks the anniversary of the Battle of Vertières in 1803, when Haiti secured its independence from France. The symbolism is profound.”
St. Louis makes another historic connection: Next year’s tournament will also coincide with America’s 250th anniversary, adding another layer of significance.
The Haitian community has a long history in Philadelphia. Hundreds of white slaveholders and those they enslaved fled the Haitian Revolution, first arriving in Philadelphia in 1793; many of those enslaved people gained their freedom here in the years between 1793 and 1796. The community grew and saw waves of immigration throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, prompted by political turmoil and natural disasters.
The shadow of Trump’s immigration policies “loom large” — even over an event like the World Cup match, according to St. Louis.
“The cancellation of the Temporary Protected Status program threatens to strip many Haitians of their legal ability to remain in the United States, leaving them vulnerable to deportation,” he said. “Furthermore, Haiti is among the 19 countries whose citizens are banned from entering the U.S., which will hinder potential visitors from attending the matches.”
But he and Dafils always return to the thrill and magic of the World Cup match.
“It has taken 52 years for Haiti to return to the World Cup. None of us know when we will see this again. I was not yet born in 1974, and I never thought I would witness such a moment,” Dafils said.
“This match symbolizes hope,” St. Louis said, “a celebration of cultural connections that transcend borders. Even amid political challenges and the looming impact of immigration policies, this gathering promises to foster unity among diverse communities, showcasing the power of sports to uplift and inspire.”
“As the day approaches, the anticipation grows for what promises to be an exhilarating clash, filled with heartwarming moments, passionate displays, and the acknowledgment of Haiti’s journey,” he added.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is officially six months away, and Philadelphians’ next chance to buy general admission tickets starts Thursday.
From Dec. 11 to Jan. 13, fans can enter a lottery for the chance to buy World Cup match tickets, like the two previous lottery phases. The “random selection draw” is the third of several ticket sale phases leading up to the World Cup’s first match on June 11, 2026, in Mexico City.
During the first two ticket phases, the United States, Canada, and Mexico (in that order) drove the bulk of ticket sales, according to FIFA. Fans in 212 countries have bought tickets.
However, since the final draw on Friday, the World Cup matchups and schedule have been finalized. This will be the first ticket sale phase in which fans can apply for single-game tickets for exact matchups and teams.
Brazil’s Raphinha (center) celebrates with teammate Vinícius Júnior after scoring his side’s opening goal against Venezuela during a World Cup qualifying match.
How to enter the random selection draw for FIFA World Cup tickets
The lottery application form will become available on FIFA’s website starting at 11 a.m. Thursday and will close at 11 a.m. on Jan. 13.
Log in during the application window and complete the random selection draw application form.
Winners will be selected in a random draw, with notifications starting soon after Jan. 13. Those selected will receive an assigned date and time to purchase tickets, subject to availability.
Single-match tickets to all 104 games, plus venue-specific and team-specific options, will be made available to choose from. That means fans in the Philadelphia area could buy tickets for matches at Lincoln Financial Field — if selected.
Fans who have applied to previous ticket sale lotteries must submit a new application form.
There’s this idea in the sports world that when your team wins a championship like the Super Bowl, fans can’t really complain about whatever happens in the next season or two. The author of that maxim has obviously never been to Philadelphia, which is experiencing a 1776-level revolt over the Eagles’ three-game losing streak and the increasingly erratic play of the Super Bowl MVP, quarterback Jalen Hurts. So much for brotherly love, pal.
No, the thing that finally caused the mainstream media to go all Watergate all the time on Donald Trump and his Pentagon chief was a lot more simple, if harder to stomach: the early September murder by drone strike of two men — their identities still unknown to the world, or most of it — clinging to a piece of ship-wreckage in the Caribbean Sea near Venezuela.
Flip on the favorite show of the Beltway set — MS Now’s Morning Joe — and there practically is no other story than the second attack on the seemingly helpless victims of an initial drone strike that killed their nine comrades. The media is demanding to learn what did self-proclaimed “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth know about the strike, and when did he know it. Commentators are calling the killing a war crime at best, a murder at worst. An unnamed lawmaker who saw a video of the second strike told reporters that the film is nauseating.
Pressure on the Trump regime to release this 45 or so minutes of footage of the boat attack is intensifying, and it’s not hard to understand why. It’s a bit like 2020’s video of the excruciating cop murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which made a problem that activists had been talking about for decades — police brutality — so real for everyday folk that millions took to the streets.
Likewise, people have been calling Trump names — including the “f-word,” fascist — ever since the Manhattan real-estate mogul descended the escalator at Trump Tower to run for president in 2015. But somehow the mental image of men reportedly begging to be saved seconds before an admiral givesthe order to obliterate them has captured the angry imagination in a way that past Trump outrages did not. No wonder Trump has flip-flopped on releasing the video.
Look, I’m glad the media and Congress, including some Republicans, are finally taking seriously the idea that major felonies are being committed in Trump World. Still, the two men killed in what’s called the double-tap strike came after nine other people had already been blown up, in an attack against civilians of a nation America is not at war with, who were accused of committing a crime — drug trafficking — that is not a capital offense.
There is no legal, let alone moral, justification for this attack — and it was the first of a series of drone strikes that have killed at least 86 people. There’s a strong case that every one of these is a war crime. It’s just that the killing of the two men clinging to debris appears even more egregious.
This highlights an even weightier issue. From Day One of Trump’s second term, there has been a callous indifference to human life — a hallmark that the current U.S. government unfortunately shares with many other authoritarian regimes throughout history. But the media, and the watchdogs, have struggled to convey this reality with so many of the deaths taking place off camera.
So far, the worst crime has been the rash move back in the first weeks of the new administration by Trump’s billionaire then-ally Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) — a once-thriving $34-billion-a-year agency that funded food, medicine, classrooms and other aid in developing nations.
The Musk team labelled USAID as inefficient and out of whack with Trump’s new priorities like curbing immigration. This despite the fact that experts saw the American agency as the best projector of “soft power” around the globe as it saved literally millions of lives, especially for children under age 5.
“We are now witnessing what the historian Richard Rhodes termed ‘public man-made death,’ which, he observed, has been perhaps the most overlooked cause of mortality in the last century,” Atul Gawande, a surgeon who worked with USAID in the Joe Biden years, wrote last month in the New Yorker. Gawande estimated that the wanton destruction of USAID programs that offered vaccines and fought AIDS and infectious disease outbreaks caused 600,000 needless deaths in the first 10 months of the Trump regime, with millions more to come.
This week, the philanthropic Gates Foundation reported that for the first time in the 21st century, mostly preventable deaths of children under age 5 are rising instead of falling, and the main culprit is cuts in development aid, led by the United States. “We could be the generation who had access to the most advanced science and innovation in human history,” the billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said, “but couldn’t get the funding together to ensure it saved lives.”
The MAGA comebacks to cries that Trump is a fascist dictator often claim that innocent people aren’t getting slaughtered as happened under Adolf Hitler or Mao Zedong or other historic despots. The truth is that the regime’s cruelty-is-the-point demagoguery is inevitably becoming a death cult, epitomized by Musk’s chainsaw DOGE shtick. The murder happens in small batches, on boats off South America, and it also happens in big lots in places like famine-plagued South Sudan, as children die from aid cuts to badly needed health centers.
And increasingly, Trump’s death cult is taking root here at home, from the 25 humans, and counting, who’ve died in ICE’s overcrowded detention centers this year, to individuals like Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez, who was struck by cars while running awayfrom immigration agents who raided a Home Depot parking lot in Southern California. This is before we know the full and likely lethal impact of alarming health policy changes from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Health and Human Services Department, and the toxic anti-vaccine culture he promotes.
We should be just as outraged by the deaths that take place out of sight, in dusty and remote places on the other side of the world, as by two premeditated murders captured in a MAGA snuff film. Understanding the nature of Trump’s cult of death is critical for folks to find the courage to rise up and stop this before it gets much, much worse.
Yo, do this!
The one thing that truly sets MS Now’s Rachel Maddow apart from her peers as an opinionated late-night cable-news host is her love for history, and her ability to put today’s crisis in the context of what came before. In her second life as a top podcaster, Maddow’s sweet spot has become America before, during, and immediately after World War II, and what memory-holed stories from that era tell us about today. Her new audio series, Burn Order, is about immigration, paranoia and demagoguery — not now, but in the unconscionable internment of Japanese-Americans in the 1940s. Two episodes in, it’s her best podcast yet.
I’ve never really kept my promise to include great restaurants and bars in this space, but here goes. During last week’s fairly frantic journalistic sojourn to New Orleans, I took one night off and grabbed a beer in what might be the greatest American dive bar, Jake and Snake’s Christmas Club Bar. This shotgun shack of a watering hole in the middle of an otherwise residential street has to be seen to be believed, both on the ramshackle outside and in the dark interior pumping 1950s rockabilly and lit only by — what else? — Christmas lights. There is no better way to kick off your holiday season.
Ask me anything
Question: All things considered, the U.S. has weathered this first year of the second Trump regime OK. But three more years of this? Any guesses as to what happens between now and then? — Shawn “Smith” Peirce (@silversmith1.bsky.social) via Bluesky
Answer: Weathered? Just barely. But I do exit 2025 slightly more optimistic than I began the year, thanks to the size of the No Kings protests and the growing resolve of citizen resistance to immigration raids. What happens in the next three years? I think 2026 will be pivotal. Trump will surely look at his sagging polls and double down on dictatorship, which could include misguided foreign wars, more aggressive use of troops at home, and efforts to somehow nullify next November’s midterms. I also think these will fail, which means a Democratic Congress in 2027 and 2028 that will certainly impeach Trump and restrain his worst impulses. If not, I may be writing this newsletter from my prison cell.
What you’re saying about…
The question I posed here two weeks ago about the John F. Kennedy assassination was a good, evergreen topic ahead of a long break. Maybe it was my boomer-heavy readership, but all but one respondent didn’t believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. “I also saw Jack Ruby shoot Oswald on live television, another searing memory,” wrote Laura Hardy, who was 8 in 1963. “Nothing ever added up in my mind. Still doesn’t. Was it the Russians? The CIA? The mob?” The one naysayer was Armen Pandola, who argues that “JFK was a fairly conservative Democrat at the time…Where is the motive?”
📮 This week’s question: This has been asked before, but it’s still the most important thing going. Trump is appearing in public with a bruised, bandaged hand, prone to weird digressions or outbursts. So what is the deal with his health? Please email me your answer and put the exact phrase “Trump’s health” in the subject line.
Backstory on an all-too fitting venue for Trump’s Pa. speech
The Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, Pa.
Donald Trump may be constitutionally ineligible to run again for president — no seriously, he can’t — but that factoid apparently isn’t stopping the 47th POTUS from campaigning in the critical swing states. Why else did Trump choose Pennsylvania — a state he visited a gazillion times as a candidate — as the location for a major speech on the economy, to convince citizens that what they are seeing in supermarket aisles is not what’s happening? I can’t even imagine what Trump will say Tuesday night, but I was stunned to learn the regime’s choice of venue: The Mount Airy Casino Resort, the former honeymoon haven in Mount Pocono.
It’s not just that Trump is touting economic security in a casino, which seems way too fitting in an America where so many folks have decided that the only way they’ll ever get rich is through gambling, whether that’s a get-rich-quick investment in crypto or meme stocks, or by an addiction to the betting sites like DraftKings that are devouring the sports world. Or that the backdrop might remind people that Trump was the rare entrepreneur who drove his own Atlantic City casinos — supposedly a license to print money — into bankruptcy.
The real problem is that the Mount Airy Lodge is the epitome of the real Trump economy: Public corruption. Like Trump’s real-estate empire, the original Mount Airy Lodge fell on hard times in the 1990s, and its longtime owner died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1999. The supposed savior was the state’s headlong rush into casino gambling and northeastern Pennsylvania’s landfill magnate Louis DeNaples, long dogged by allegations of ties to Scranton’s organized crime family. In 2008, DeNaples was indicted on four counts of perjury tied to his casino permit application; ultimately the politically connected businessman turned over the casino to a trust chaired by his daughter and saw the charges dropped. But the Mount Airy Resort Casino remains dogged by controversy, including a recently proposed $2.3 million settlement with its table-games dealers who accused the owners of years of wage theft.
But Trump considers DeNaples “a close friend,” and the Mount Airy casino nabbed a $50 million federal bailout loan during the COVID-19 pandemic in the final year of Trump’s first term. Five years later, is there a positive story about the Trump economy that can be told from this stage of dropped felony charges, alleged wage theft, and government largesse for the well-connected? Don’t bet your nest egg on it.
What I wrote on this date in 2015
Ten years ago, I was fascinated by the decades-long political rise of Vermont senator and then-White House hopeful Bernie Sanders. This left-wing curmudgeon and relic of the 1960s didn’t capture the White House but changed America, for good. On Dec. 9, 2015, I touted my Amazon Kindle Single e-book about Sanders (The Bern Identity…it’s still available!) and offered highlights. I wrote: “Politics mattered then, before Chicago and Kent State and Watergate and all the cynicism, and the unvarnished, authentic voice of Bernie Sanders is bringing that feeling back for many.” Read the rest: “5 things I learned writing an e-book about Bernie Sanders.”
Recommended Inquirer reading
Did I mention that I went to New Orleans? I wrote two columns from the scene of Homeland Security’s immigration raid that the Trump regime has branded “Catahoula Crunch” in a gross homage to the Louisiana state dog. The first piece looked at Day One of the operation — the Big Lie behind the raids that claim to target criminals but instead go after day laborers, usually without criminal records — and the fear that pervaded the Latino community. The second column was a much more hopeful look inside the growing citizen resistance, as I profiled the everyday folks who are taking risks to blow whistles, chase cars, and generally impede Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
Last week — if you could somehow make it through the sickening bromance between Donald Trump and FIFA, the world governing body of soccer — we finally learned the key groupings and early-stage matches of the 2026 men’s World Cup finals across the United States as well as our now frenemies Canada and Mexico. You won’t be surprised to know that The Inquirer’s soccer writer extraordinaire Jonathan Tannenwald was all over the key developments. We learned who the U.S. team will play: Paraguay, a to-be-determined European qualifier, and Australia, in a June 19 Seattle match I still want to attend if I can start a GoFundMe (kidding…maybe) for the astronomical ticket prices. The Philadelphia matches include perennial contenders France and Brazil as well as a Curaçao-Ivory Coast showdown that I’m excited for because I might be able to afford it. The World Cup is going to be one of the biggest stories of 2026, and you know the Inquirer will cover this like an Italian center back. This alone will be worth the price of a subscription, so what are you waiting for?
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With 48 teams spread across 12 groups in a World Cup for the first time, the 72 group-stage games next summer will be a lot to take in.
Here are our picks for the top 10 to watch, in chronological order. In two cases, we’ll note the ones we would have put at the top of a ranking by quality.
Canada vs. Italy
If Italy wins its qualifying playoff
Group B, 3 p.m. June 12 in Toronto
There are a lot of great stories across the 48 teams, especially the many first-timers and first-in-a-long-timers. But that doesn’t mean there are a lot of must-circle games. In truth, a tournament this big — too big for a lot of tastes — could create a diluted group stage.
But don’t tell that to the northernmost of the three cohosts. This will be the first men’s World Cup played on Canadian soil, and the Canucks will start against the winner of the European playoff bracket with Italy, Northern Ireland, Wales, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
If Italy emerges from that qualifying playoff, a Canada-Italy matchup in a city with a raucous Italian expat community would be electric. (It also likely would be as expensive a ticket at Toronto’s 45,736-seat stadium as a custom Armani suit.)
Among the many Little Italy neighborhoods in North America, Toronto has long had one of the most vibrant.
The Azzuri are favored to win that bracket, but not a slam dunk. They’ve missed the last two World Cups in catastrophic fashion, and if they beat Northern Ireland, they’ll have to face Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina on the road. If they get the job done, you’ll hear the cheers from College and Bathurst up north all the way to Passyunk and Snyder down south.
Brazil vs. Morocco
Group C, 6 p.m. June 13 in East Rutherford, N.J.
Group C will have the most fun vibes, with Scotland and Haiti as the other teams — both are ending decades-long waits to return to men’s soccer’s biggest stage. Their fan bases will be boisterous, and the Scots’ Tartan Army will be massive. But in soccer terms, this will be the best matchup.
The Seleçao’s quest for an unparalleled sixth title goes through an African power that is loaded with talent and skill. Fans rightly will dream of watching Brazil’s Vinícius Júnior or Estêvão charge at Morocco’s all-world outside back Achraf Hakimi, and Hakimi will charge the other way at his Paris Saint-Germain teammate Marquinhos.
Paris Saint-Germain teammates Marquinhos (left) and Achraf Hakimi could play against each other in the World Cup.
Netherlands vs. Japan
Group F, 4 p.m. June 14 in Arlington, Texas
This game also will feature lots of skill across the field.
Japan’s Ao Tanaka (right) is teammates with Medford’s Brenden Aaronson at English Premier League club Leeds United.
England vs. Croatia
Group L, 4 p.m. June 17 in Arlington, Texas
England will arrive in its former colonies as one of the favorites to win the World Cup, and for good reason. After decades of underachievement, the Three Lions finally have the right mix of talent, tactics, and chemistry to win it all.
Their toughest group test should be their opener, as Croatia’s ageless playmaker Luka Modrić matches wits with his former Real Madrid teammate Jude Bellingham. Both teams’ fans also haven’t forgotten that in their last World Cup meeting, Croatia memorably beat England on penalty kicks in the 2018 semifinals.
Jude Bellingham (right) on the ball for England in World Cup qualifying.
Mexico vs. South Korea
Group A, 9 p.m. June 18 in Guadalajara, Mexico
Eight years since their last meeting in a World Cup, they will cross paths again in what could be a wide-open game.
Mexico is under huge pressure to reach el quinto partido, a fifth game at a World Cup, for the first time since 1986 — perhaps not coincidentally the last time the tournament was on home turf. If Raúl Jiménez’s squad can topple Son Heung-Min’s squad, El Tri would take a big step in the right direction and toward winning the group.
Expect many eyes south of the Rio Grande to be on Gilberto Mora, a 17-year-old who is Mexico’s newest phenom. He looks like the real thing so far, but the World Cup is a stage beyond anything he’s seen.
Gilberto Mora played for Mexico at the under-20 World Cup this year and could play on the big stage next year.
Ecuador vs. Germany
Group E, 4 p.m. June 25 East Rutherford, N.J.
World Cup upsets don’t have the same stakes as in the NCAA Tournament, but picking them is always trendy. This one goes to the top of the list, with a potential midfield battle of Germany’s Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala vs. Ecuador’s Moisés Caicedo and Kendry Páez.
Florian Wirtz (right) in action for Germany.
U.S. vs. Turkey
If Turkey wins its qualifying playoff
Group D, 10 p.m. June 25 in Inglewood, Calif.
Though the U.S. has one of the easiest groups it could have wanted, this potential matchup is here on merit. Arda Güler and Kenan Yıldız are great young playmakers, and they have Hakan Çalhanoğlu’s veteran experience behind them.
It’s just a shame that FIFA and whoever else was in the room decided to stick the kickoff time so late on a Thursday night for most of the country.
Kenan Yıldız (left) on the ball for Turkey when it beat the U.S. in June in East Hartford, Conn.
Norway vs. France
Group I, 3 p.m. June 26 in Foxborough, Mass.
For all the gaudiness of the World Cup draw’s entertainment acts, you could hear a pin drop in the Kennedy Center’s fabled Concert Hall when the serious business started. Then, every once in a while, the crowd would gasp.
The onlookers gasped mightily when Norway landed in France’s group.
It will be the group-stage finale for both teams, too, with France aiming to take another step toward a third straight men’s World Cup final. That makes this game No. 2 behind Brazil-Morocco as the best overall.
Kylian Mbappé (left) and Erling Haaland have played against each other in the UEFA Champions League, but never in the World Cup.
Uruguay vs. Spain
Group H, 8 p.m. June 26 in Guadalajara
This game might turn out to be a dud because Uruguay has been playing pretty badly lately and doesn’t look like it will turn it around before the summer. But Federico Valverde play against a slew of players he knows well as a Real Madrid stalwart.
Spain will be worth watching no matter what. Electric teenager Lamine Yamal is the world’s game’s new superstar, and La Roja’s list of talents is among the sport’s longest: Gavi, Pedri, Rodri, Mikel Merino, Dani Olmo, Nico Williams, Martín Zubimendi, and more.
Uruguay’s Federico Valverde (right) and Spain’s Pedri (bottom) play on opposite sides of the Real Madrid-Barcelona rivalry, one of soccer’s most famous clashes.
Colombia vs. Portugal
Group K, 7:30 p.m. June 27 in Miami Gardens, Fla.
If Jamaica wins its intercontinental playoff bracket, Andre Blake would face Cristiano Ronaldo in the Reggae Boyz’ first men’s World Cup game since 1998. But since that’s not guaranteed — and really not guaranteed right now, given how Jamaica failed in Concacaf qualifying — we’ll pick a certainty.
In particular, we’ll pick the certainty of Colombia’s outstanding fan base. The Cafeteros always have boisterous backing in the United States, thanks to the big expat community here, and they will be deafening in South Florida.
On the field, the marquee will have Ronaldo and Colombia’s Luis Díaz. But these days, Ronaldo isn’t his country’s best player. Vitinha, João Neves, and Rafael Leão are ahead of the biggest name.
When the World Cup arrives in town next summer, diehard soccer fans and casual followers will tune in to see the action. If you’re one who doesn’t know everything about all the teams that will play at Lincoln Financial Field, we’re here to help.
Here’s our ranking of the five group games Philadelphia will host.
5. Curaçao vs. Ivory Coast
Group E, June 25, 4 p.m.
Curaçao will be one of this World Cup’s great underdog stories. The former Dutch territory leveraged its diaspora in the Netherlands to recruit talented players like brothers Leandro and Juninho Bacuna. Their manager is a Dutch legend, Dick Advocaat.
Curaçao’s celebrations at the final whistle of its tie at Jamaica last month that clinched the Caribbean island’s first World Cup qualification.
The Blue Wave will probably be routed by Germany and Ecuador in their first two group games, so this could be their tournament farewell. Hopefully, though, they will get a nice send-off from a city that loves underdogs.
Ivory Coast is led by midfielder Franck Kessié and forwards Amad Diallo and Sébastien Haller. You’ll also want to keep an eye on 19-year-old winger Yan Diomande. He lived for a few years in the United States as a young teen, and played high school and youth club soccer in Florida before turning pro in Europe in November 2024.
The other upside to this matchup is that since the teams’ fan bases aren’t huge, there’s a chance local fans will be able to get tickets for it. Perhaps only a small chance, because there will be huge demand — and exorbitant prices — for every World Cup game no matter who’s in it.
Yan Diomande celebrates scoring a goal for Ivory Coast in a World Cup qualifier in October.
4. Ivory Coast vs. Ecuador
Group E, June 14, 7 p.m.
Picking the game to rank fourth was even harder than picking the game to rank fifth. It came down to star power vs. potential atmosphere in the stands, and the tie went against the atmosphere.
So we apologize to Ivory Coast for putting both of its games at the bottom. We also apologize to the tens of thousands of Ecuador fans who will ensure that Philadelphia’s first men’s World Cup game is a fast sellout. La Tri’s faithful have a long track record of traveling all over the U.S. when their team plays here, and creating boisterous atmospheres.
Kendry Paez (center) played for Ecuador against the United States in October.
3. Croatia vs. Ghana
Group L, June 27, 5 p.m.
We said players break ties, and no one’s better for that than legendary Croatian playmaker Luka Modrić. He will be atop the marquee for this game, and he won’t just draw Croatia fans in their famed red-and-white checkerboard jerseys. Anyone who has relished watching his club career with Real Madrid and AC Milan will want to be there, as Modrić plays in his final World Cup at age 40.
Even at age 40, Croatia’s Luka Modrić (left) remains one of the soccer world’s great midfield wizards.
2. France vs. Bolivia, Suriname, or Iraq
Group I, June 22, 5 p.m.
Now for the easy part. France commands attention with star power and success. Kylian Mbappé led Les Bleus to the 2018 World Cup title and the 2022 final, and there’s every reason to believe they could make another deep run next year.
From reigning world player of the year Ousmane Dembélé to fast-rising youngsters Bradley Barcola, Désiré Doué, and Michael Olise — just a few of the many names that could go here — France has a depth of elite talent that almost no other national team can match.
They also have a national anthem in “La Marseillaise” that’s perfect for belting out from the stands, even on a hot summer evening.
We’ll know which team France will face after the intercontinental playoffs in March. Bolivia hasn’t been to a men’s World Cup since 1994, when Marco Etcheverry and Jaime Moreno played before becoming some of MLS’s first stars. Iraq hasn’t been on this stage since 1986.
From here, and from the view of many followers of soccer in North and Central America, there will be a soft spot for Suriname. Like Curaçao, the nation that’s officially in South America’s land mass has leveraged its Dutch connections to rise up Concacaf’s ranks.
The Natio are led by forward Sheraldo Becker, who played with Medford’s Brenden Aaronson in 2023-24 at Germany’s Union Berlin. He then moved to Spain, first at Real Sociedad and now at Osasuna.
Sheraldo Becker (left) in action with Spain’s Real Sociead last season.
1. Brazil vs. Haiti
Group C, June 19, 9 p.m.
The top pick was obvious, but just in case, here’s a little more juice for it. A few hours after the World Cup schedule was announced, this writer went to the Big 5 Classic and was asked by a few friends and colleagues about the games coming here.
The answer always started with Brazil, and every time it didn’t finish before that one word produced an amazed reaction.
That’s the power of the most decorated team in men’s World Cup history. The Seleçao’s five championships are the record, and they are the only team to play in every men’s World Cup there’s ever been. Philadelphia will be the 60th all-time city in which Brazil has played a men’s World Cup game.
Nor can any team match the nation’s history of superstars, from Garrincha to Pelé to the original Ronaldo — all wearing the eternal yellow-and-green jerseys.
Dunga lifted the trophy and paraded it around the Rose Bowl when Brazil won the 1994 men’s World Cup in the United States for its fourth title.
Now comes what might be the final piece of the puzzle, famed manager Carlo Ancelotti. He coached many of these players at Spanish club Real Madrid, and has the clout to make the big decisions necessary to pick the World Cup team.
What makes this specific game even better is Brazil’s opponent. Haiti is in its first men’s World Cup since 1974. Its vibrant diaspora across North America will flock to town, even if the Trump administration bans travelers from the nation itself.
Les Grenadiers also have two players with Philadelphia ties, Union midfielder Danley Jean Jacques and Penn alumnus Duke Lacroix. As rare as it is to play in any World Cup, it’s even rarer to get a homecoming game on soccer’s biggest stage.
Friday morning at Stateside Live! felt like a fever dream for Philadelphia sports fans.
Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro stood above guests on the second floor of the entertainment venue surrounded by Phang, Gritty, Swoop, and the Phanatic as they prepared for the Philadelphia Soccer 2026 World Cup final draw watch party.
“We won this bid to host the FIFA World Cup next year because we’ve got the greatest fans on the face of the earth,” Shapiro said. “The eyes of the world are going to be on Philly next year when we celebrate USA 250. … FIFA World Cup is going to be great. And let’s pray for a USA-Mexico matchup on July 4th right here in Philly.”
Josh Shapiro at the Philadelphia Soccer 2026 World Cup final draw watch party pic.twitter.com/xn7c7ImeCq
“I’ve only been able to see the World Cup one other time and that was when we lived in Orlando and it was amazing,” Gary said. “But again, it’s our hometown now and our hometown team, so it just makes it even more special that it’s going to be here. It’s Philadelphia, it’s the birthplace of our country … and it’s our country’s 250th birthday.”
The final draw was a pivotal moment for fans, as it sets the stage for what is expected to be an unforgettable summer of soccer, with the U.S. joining Canada and Mexico as host nations, and Philly being one of 11 American cities to host games.
To witness history, Jim House, 45, and his son Maxwell, 13, made the trip from Atlantic City.
“We really wanted to check out what’s happening with the World Cup,” Jim said. “It’s a once in a lifetime experience for my son and myself to hang out together and get to see all this.”
Maxwell added: “I’m really excited for the World Cup. I’ll be watching a lot of the games.”
During Friday’s draw, qualified teams — with a few spots left to be decided — were placed into 12 groups of four to make up the 48-team World Cup field. The United States was placed in Group D, alongside Paraguay, Australia, and the winner of a March 2026 UEFA playoff between Turkey, Romania, Slovakia, and Kosovo.
Gabriel Luzbet of Harrison, N.J., juggles a soccer ball during the FIFA World Cup draw watch party at Stateside Live! on Friday.
After seeing their grouping, Chester native Jared Micklos believes the United States has a good chance to advance to the knockout rounds.
“The World Cup is a tricky tournament,” Micklos said. “It’s as much about the teams as it is the order you’re playing in. I think there’s a team we know well. We just played Paraguay and obviously that was a good result for the U.S. The play-in game, if that’s Turkey, I think it gets a lot trickier. That’s a difficult team. So, if they win the playoff, our group probably gets a little bit tougher.”
Philadelphia will host six matches, including five Group Stage games and a round-of-16 match on the Fourth of July. Some fans, like 65-year-old Vorhees native George Flunt, don’t plan on missing a minute. Flunt already has his tickets for all six games, and spent a total of $11,000 to attend.
“It’s a splurge, a little,” Flunt said. “Well worth it. It’s a true world event. We don’t get too many of those here in Philly. To bring in all the different countries together and showcase how good this city is, it really means a lot.”
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WASHINGTON — There’s plenty of history of World Cup host teams getting easy groups. But the soccer gods definitely smiled on the U.S. men’s national team at Friday’s draw.
The Americans got Australia out of Pot 2, the second-toughest batch, instead of the stars and skills of Croatia, Morocco, or Colombia. In Pot 3, they got Paraguay, instead of Norway’s all-world striker Erling Haaland and playmaker Martin Ødegaard.
At that point in the glitzy stage show, with President Donald Trump leading the guest list at the Kennedy Center, the U.S. knew it would get a European playoff winner from Pot 4. But even then, they got lucky, landing the bracket of Turkey, Romania, Slovakia, and Kosovo, instead of the one led by Italy.
Then, as the dust settled and the watching world looked at the results, something else became clear. At least two of the three games will be rematches of recent U.S. games, and all three will be if Turkey wins that playoff.
Mauricio Pochettino (second from right) in the audience in the Kennedy Center’s historic Concert Hall.
“It means less work,” U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino said. “We can say we’ve already done the homework because it’s fresh when we played them … It’s still six months. We need to update everything — and we know them, but they know us.”
The Americans’ opening game will be against Paraguay on June 12, the second day of the tournament, in Inglewood, Calif. The teams met last month at Subaru Park in Chester, and the U.S. won, 2-1, with goals from Gio Reyna and Folarin Balogun.
“I know they’re a very difficult, very complex team, one that has found a way to build a solid foundation, a solid base,” Paraguay manager Gustavo Alfaro said. “And that helps us understand the things we need to improve.”
Seven days later, the U.S. will play Australia in Seattle, a game that should produce a thunderous atmosphere in one of America’s elite soccer cities. In October, the U.S. came from behind to beat a physical Socceroos squad, 2-1, with two goals from Haji Wright.
“We know what to expect — a top team, a top coach,” Australia manager Tony Popovic said. “It will be obviously different in a World Cup to a friendly, but that also excites us.”
Then it will be back to the LA area for the group stage finale, on June 25 against the playoff winner.
Turkey beat the U.S., 2-1 in June in East Hartford, Conn., but that U.S. squad was missing a lot of its stars — deliberately at that point, by Pochettino’s decision. Turkey’s squad was full-strength, including star playmakers Kenan Yıldız of Italy’s Juventus (where he’s teammates with Weston McKennie) and Arda Güler of Spain’s Real Madrid.
If Romania pulls off the upset in the playoff, memories will come back of the teams’ 1994 World Cup matchup at the Rose Bowl. Romania’s 1-0 win that day was the last of the teams’ four all-time meetings, with the first in 1991 the only U.S. win.
The Union’s Quinn Sullivan (left) made his senior U.S. debut in June’s game againt Turkey.
The U.S. has only played Slovakia once, a 1-0 Slovakia win in that country’s capital, Bratislava. The U.S. and Kosovo have never played.
The European playoffs are in March. Turkey hosts Romania, and Slovakia hosts Kosovo, and the latter game’s winner hosts the finale.
Pochettino wants his team to believe it can win the World Cup. His favorite slogan lately has been “Be realistic and do the impossible.”
It’s his job to present that message, even if “realistic” for everyone else is something else. That bears saying loudly because fans who only watch the U.S. men during World Cups might take Pochettino at his word.
Mauricio Pochettino at a U.S. team practice last month.
For them, and for the team’s devotees too, Tyler Adams’ words are worth heeding.
“Everyone’s going to want us to say winning it is obviously the goal,” the veteran U.S. midfielder and locker room leader said. “Our idea is to win — that’s the goal. But I think setting the benchmark of the furthest the U.S. team has gone is also realistic. So we want to go and make a run, but again, it’s a game by game mentality.”
The farthest the U.S. men have gone at a World Cup was nearly a century ago at the first edition, in 1930, when they finished third in a 12-team field. They have advanced from their group in five of the eight World Cups they have gone to in their modern era, which started in 1990; and their only ever knockout game win was in 2002, against next-door-neighbor Mexico half a world away in South Korea.
Reaching the semifinals this time would require three knockout-round wins: in the round of 32 in the first 48-team World Cup, the round of 16, and the quarterfinals. The conventional wisdom outside the program is, and likely will remain, that success will be reaching the quarterfinals.
The U.S. men haven’t won a World Cup knockout game since Landon Donovan (center) scored to help beat Mexico in the 2002 World Cup’s round of 16.
“We have to focus on ourselves — we have to worry about how we are and who we are and what we are and the connections and the aggressiveness and the intensity and the focus,” said centerback Tim Ream, Pochettino’s captain as the squad’s most experienced player. “At some point, you’re going to have to play the best some of the best teams. So do you play them in the group stage? Do you play with the knockouts? It doesn’t really matter, right?”
What’s certain is that no matter the opponents, the games matter more now, starting with March friendlies against Portugal and Belgium. Then the U.S. will play its send-off games amid training camp against Germany and a team to be announced.
As the nation starts to tune in, it will be up to Pochettino and his players to turn that pressure into a force that strengthens them, and potentially powers a history-making run on home soil.
“I think it’s good pressure,” Pochettino said. “The expectation is good, because it puts good stress in your body.”
It will only build up over the coming months.
U.S. men’s soccer team 2026 World Cup group schedule
June 12: vs. Paraguay in Inglewood, Calif.
June 19: vs. Australia in Seattle
June 25: vs. UEFA playoff winner in Inglewood, Calif.
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WASHINGTON — We’re one step closer in learning which teams will head to Philly ahead of next summer’s FIFA World Cup.
A packed house inside the Kennedy Center featuring world leaders, celebrities, and the delegations of over 40 nations watched as their countries were pulled from pots and slotted into 12 groups in FIFA’s expanded 48 team tournament.
Lincoln Financial Field is scheduled to host six matches, five in the group stage of the tournament and a Round of 16 game on July 4. Those early-round matches will be in Groups C, E, I, and L.
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The four nations in Group C were Brazil, Morocco, Haiti, and Scotland.
Brazil, which earned its qualification following a win over Paraguay on June 10, kept its streak of qualifying for every World Cup intact. We certainly learned that Morocco, which qualified in September, brings the party, evidenced by the fanfare brought to Philly by fans of the country’s Wydad AC in this summer’s Club World Cup.
“We’re incredibly excited about the potential for what the match schedule is going to be,” said Meg Kane, host city executive for FIFA Philly 2026, which is coordinating the events in Philadelphia next summer. “I think as we look at the four groups that have the potential of coming through Philadelphia, there are some big name teams, [like] Brazil and Morocco. We got to experience their fans last summer during Club World Cup. We would welcome them back, and I think [fans would] really lean into the excitement of that.”
Moroccan fans of Wydad AC brought one of the most festive displays of celebration at the FIFA Club World Cup matches at Lincoln Financial Field earlier this year.
Possibly hosting Haiti and Senegal is exciting for Kane, too. It will be Haiti’s second World Cup appearance, and first since 1974. The Caribbean nation remains on the U.S.’s travel ban list under the Trump administration, however.
Haiti manager Sébastien Migné said he hopes President Donald Trump, who on Friday was awarded FIFA’s inaugural peace prize, will show diplomacy.
“[Trump] is a peace prize winner,” Migné said after the event. “Maybe he will continue, and it will open the possibility for our fans to come here.”
Kane is eager for Haitians living in the Philadelphia area to have the opportunity to see their country at the Linc.
“When it comes to Haiti, Ghana, and Senegal, I think that’s going to be potentially incredible when you consider the West African and Caribbean diaspora in West Philadelphia and across the region,” Kane said. “But looking at all the prospects, I think this has the potential to deliver [five incredible] group-stage matches. It’s really exciting.”
Philly’s group C match is on Friday, June 19, coincidentally on the day the U.S. men’s national team has a match in Group D in Seattle.
There will be two Group E matches at the Linc. That group features Germany, Curaçao, the Ivory Coast, and Ecuador. A match in Group E will kick off the series of World Cup games hosted in Philly on Sunday, June 14, with the second Group E tilt is Thursday, June 25 — another matchday on which the U.S. will have a Group D game in Los Angeles.
Curaçao, which is making its first World Cup appearance and is the field’s smallest nation by population, will be the first match for Germany, another popular team.
“I think we’re also excited to potentially see Germany appear in Group E,” Kane said. “That would be an incredible opportunity. France, in Group I, is huge, as well as England [in Group L]. I mean, really, when you think of major teams and the matches that we could have, the potential is there to really draw some of the top two teams.”
Along with France, Senegal, Norway, and the winner of a March playoff between Iraq, Bolivia, and Suriname could be in the mix for Philly’s Group I match, scheduled for Monday, June 22.
Finally, along with England in Group L, Croatia, Ghana, and Panama are together. The Linc’s Group L match, the penultimate in the series of games in Philly, will kick off on Saturday, June 27. England will open its World Cup campaign against Croatia in a rematch of the 2018 World Cup semifinal.
Brian Swanson, FIFA’s director of media relations, told the Inquirer that a decision to extend the draw an extra day to announce the venues was to “allow for greater discussion to take place on the exact locations.”
It already was known that no host nation will play group matches in Philly as Mexico (Group A1), Canada (B1), and the United States (D1) were predetermined.
Now, it’s a 24-hour wait before all 16 host cities across the United States, Canada and Mexico find out the nations they’ll host. Kane said that’s when the work begins of outreach to the various federations and understanding accommodation needs while preparing to introduce “Philly to the world” in a little under seven months.
“Once we see where those matches fall and what comes out, it’s the outreach that we’ll need to start planning in early 2026, related to which nations are coming,” Kane said. “It would have been an amazing opportunity to be in D.C. and start to be able to do that, but given that we’re not going to know until tomorrow, a lot of that outreach will be planned for in January and February.
“Looking at this list [of potential nations], there’s not a team on here where I don’t go, ‘Wow.’ There’s a passionate fan base with ties to our area on every team, which I find fantastic and is going to really meet the moment incredibly well for Philadelphia.”
Former NBA player Shaquille O’Neal, actor Kevin Hart, and former NFL player Tom Brady were among the big names at Friday’s draw.
Draw tidbits
Kevin Hart, who ended the event on stage with Heidi Klum, Tom Brady, and other celebrities gave a shoutout to Philly: “I know my guys back in Philadelphia are happy who could be coming to Philly next summer.” … Carli Lloyd, who was among the crowd at the draw noted how the men’s game coming to North America bodes well for the growth of sport — on the men’s and women’s side. The Delran native was the hero of the U.S. women’s national team’s women’s World Cup win in 2015 after her hat trick in the final cemented her legacy on the world stage. “I think it’s going to be great for both the men’s and women’s sides and we need to leverage that and harness it … to inspire girls and boys in our country,” she said. … The prize won by Trump is given to individuals who, through their unwavering commitment and their special actions, have helped to unite people all over the world, soccer’s governing body noted. Trump called the award “one of the great honors of his life,” and touted that peace accords he’s helped broker in the Middle East, Africa, and between Israel and Hamas have “saved millions and millions of lives.”
