Donald Trump has announced his support for Argentina in today’s World Cup final, remarking, “It’s hard to bet against Messi.”

The former president is set to present the World Cup trophy to the winner of the Sunday game between Argentina and Spain.

Speaking to Fox ahead of the match, Trump shared his pre-match thoughts, saying he had been considering the question of which team would win, as he anticipated it would be posed to him.

He praised Argentinian president Javier Milei as a “friend of mine” and noted that he has done a “terrific job.” Trump believes that Argentina will emerge victorious due to their standout player.

Trump expressed admiration for Messi’s game-winning assist in the semi-final against England, explaining, “I watched that pass… I guess you’d call it a pass… that was perfect. If you had a strike zone, it was exactly where it had to be. I watched also just before that, the way he got away from the defender. He was very well defended, and then all of a sudden he was standing by himself… It’s hard to bet against Messi, he’s great.

When asked if Messi is the greatest player of all time, Trump avoided a definitive answer, referencing his friendship with Cristiano Ronaldo and reminiscing about watching Pele play for the New York Cosmos.

“I got to see Pele play, and he was great,” Trump said. “Look, these are great players, and there are others. Look at France, he had a rough game the other day, but he’s [Mbappe] certainly one of the greats. I get this information from my son. My son Barron is a tremendous soccer fan.”

Trump remarked, “You have some other really incredible players playing here, but I would say right now, when you look, I’ve always liked Ronaldo and I’ve always liked Messi. I met Messi just recently, and I have known Cristiano, and they have a pretty good life. I think they have a pretty good life, actually, much easier than my life! I’d like to switch for about a month or so.”

When prompted about the future of the World Cup in the United States, Trump noted he had a suggestion for Fifa President Gianni Infantino.

“He got it all started, and I brilliantly said: ‘Well, we’ll do it, but you could have a lot of empty stadiums!’ Didn’t work out that way, I think they were 99.9 percent full, I think they were overflowing actually,” he stated.

He continued, “I had a great idea for Gianni. I said: ‘You have to do two countries. So announce us for next time, and then announce another country after that and it’ll take out some of the anger and the shock!’ Now I think it’s a great idea. Based on the numbers, we will be requesting it again immediately. I said, to take out the shock, you could announce another country for the next one… but we have to do this again. You hear that, Gianni?”