US President Donald Trump received the inaugural 2025 FIFA Peace Prize on Friday during the World Cup draw ceremony in Washington, with football’s global governing body crediting him for brokering several high-profile peace initiatives across regions long affected by conflict.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino presented Trump with a medal and certificate, calling the honour a tribute “on behalf of billions of football-loving people” to an individual whose leadership had advanced “peace and unity around the world.” Infantino described the accolade as an annual award recognising exceptional contributions to global harmony made outside the sport but aligned with football’s universal and unifying spirit.
Reading from the official citation, Infantino said Trump was being recognised for “exceptional and extraordinary actions to promote peace and unity around the world,” dated 5 December 2025. He referenced a series of agreements he said he had witnessed personally over recent years, including the Abraham Accords, the peace understanding on Gaza signed in Sharm el-Sheikh, and negotiations in Kuala Lumpur involving Cambodia and Thailand. He also cited the recently announced Washington peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, calling these efforts examples of the kind of leadership FIFA wished to honour.
“This is your prize, this is your peace prize,” Infantino declared as the audience applauded.
Trump, visibly moved, described the award as “one of the great honours of my life.” He argued that the peace efforts credited to him had averted widespread bloodshed, claiming they had “saved millions and millions of lives.” Citing conflicts including the DRC, he said the region had been “heading for another 10 million [deaths] very quickly.” He further alluded to tensions involving India and Pakistan, saying the interventions had prevented wars “before they started.”
He used the occasion to praise Infantino’s leadership of the sport, highlighting record-breaking global interest and unprecedented ticket demand ahead of the 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico. “You’ve set new records on ticket sales… beyond any numbers anybody thought possible,” he said.
Trump also thanked his family, including former First Lady Melania Trump, and stressed ongoing cooperation with neighbouring host nations, adding: “The world is a safer place now.”
Responding later to a question about receiving a peace prize while maintaining a pledge to “strike Venezuela,” Trump reiterated his focus on conflict prevention. “I don’t need prizes. I need to save lives,” he said.
