Fifa on Friday awarded US President Donald Trump its newly established Peace Prize, for advancing peace and unity around the world.
During the World Cup 2026 draw at the Kennedy Centre in Washington, the world football governing body cited Mr Trump's brokering of the Abraham Accords, a peace agreement between the DR Congo and Rwanda, another between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the ceasefire in Gaza.
“This is truly one of the great honours of my life”, Mr Trump said. “The world is a safer place now.”
Fifa president Gianni Infantino gave Mr Trump a certificate and a medal, which the American leader put on himself.
“You can always count, Mr President, on my support, on the support of the entire football community or soccer community to help you make peace and make the world prosper,” Mr Infantino said.
Mr Trump received the award during the World Cup draw, which set the schedule of the games to be held next summer. The World Cup will be held in the US, Canada and Mexico in June and July. Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney were in attendance.
The award was announced a month ago, and in the lead-up to the event, no other names apart from Mr Trump's were floated as possible recipients.
Mr Trump, who took office for a second time earlier this year, has argued that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending global conflicts.
He claims to have ended eight wars, and has renamed the US Institute of Peace after himself.
The US President criticised the Nobel committee's decision to grant this year's award to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.
But his peacemaking coincides with US-stoked tension in the Caribbean.
Since September, the US military has launched a series of strikes on suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, resulting in at least 83 deaths. Mr Trump has also threatened to attack Venezuela by land, drawing fears of a full-blown war in Latin America.
