New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is beating Donald Trump for World Cup spotlight

Before last year’s mayoral election, Rafael Gomes, a security guard at a Manhattan bank and amateur footballer, was driven to Coney Island’s “Soccer Fest” by teammates, crammed into a van. “I thought it’s just another fun tournament,” he tells this newspaper. After the game, he saw a man in a black suit, bearded and handsome, sprawled near a dugout. “Someone threw a ball at him, and he juggled it beautifully. Lovely touches, he might be a professional, I thought,” he says.

He asked who he was; friends said he was running for mayor. “I don’t listen to political stuff and all that. But I thought, wow, cool we are going to get a mayor who plays soccer,” he says. He watched the speech on television and became an instant admirer. “He said something like soccer is a big part of New Yorkers and a unifying force in the boroughs. I was moved because of all the talks of crackdown on immigrants and here is someone who talks of soccer and unity,” he says.

In a few weeks, Mamdani, born to Ugandan academic Mahmood Mamdani and filmmaker Mira Nair, would assume office. Within a year he’d become a hero of the masses, not just for his politics, but for his love of a sport that bound the city together. “Soccer might not be the most popular sport in the US, but it’s the identity of immigrant communities in New York, especially in the Queens, where there are Hispanics, Caribbeans and Asians,” says Joseph Aguilero, of the Uruguay FC.

For working New Yorkers, every minute matters. But for too long, our buses have been stuck in traffic instead of keeping pace with the city that never sleeps.

Today, I’m proud to unveil Next Step — our roadmap to faster, more reliable bus service across all five boroughs. We’ll… pic.twitter.com/mN4fCq7Y0p

— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) July 9, 2026

His charm grew with populist measures making the World Cup affordable. “He got the pulse of the World Cup, maybe because he is a passionate footballer,” Joseph says. When FIFA’s Infantino defended ticket prices as “justified in the US market,” Mamdani made 1,000 tickets available to the five boroughs at $50 each. When FIFA banned water bottles in the summer heat, Mamdani objected, and it backtracked. After NJ Transit spiked the Penn Station-MetLife round trip to $150, Mamdani and Governor Hochul rolled out $20 shuttle buses. “He loves the people and sport so much. We could connect with him,” Rafael says.

On Wednesday, at a press conference to unveil New York’s new bus lanes, Mamdani did the maths on saved commuting time: “It means agreeing with your friends that Egypt was robbed yesterday,” he said. Pressed on what he would do with those extra six minutes, he skipped the policy answer. “I would probably just watch the replays of Egypt getting robbed again,” he said. “Gotta throw up the VAR.”

Before academia, before his job as a foreclosure prevention counsellor, before politics seized him, all he wanted to be was a footballer. An uncle passed on the bug in Uganda: he supported Arsenal, and so did Mamdani. His love for the club, English champions, is well-storied. “I’ve kind of been hopelessly in love from the beginning,” Mamdani once said of his commitment to soccer.

He played youth football on the Upper West Side and Morningside Heights, captaining his team at Bronx High School of Science, when a pro career felt unrealistic. The love lingered anyway: Sunday leagues in Brooklyn, shifts as a defender, until the mayoralty got in the way. “Soccer helped me discover the breadth and the beauty of the city,” he said.

Q: What would you do with your extra six minutes?

Mamdani: I would probably just watch the replays of Egypt getting robbed. pic.twitter.com/paWnDjzRMh

— Acyn (@Acyn) July 8, 2026

He kept up his old watch-party haunts too: when Arsenal met PSG in the Champions League final in May, he was at the Fancy Tree Sports Bar in Fort Greene with Spike Lee. Bartender Joshua Salem remembers him as a devoted yet composed fan. “He had been here several times. He had no hang-ups of a Mayor, just like one of us. He was cheering and yelling for his team, but when they lost he was quite calm about it. He was here the other day, too for a (New York) Knicks game too. He is having a great year, isn’t he?” he asks. His favourite team is Morocco, who face France in the quarter-finals next, one more shot at making this Mamdani’s year.

Both teams ended droughts, Arsenal after 22 years, the Knicks after 53. He was at the Knicks’ City Hall parade with a stirring speech. “The Knicks did not just win for New York City, they won like New York City. What is New York if not your back is up against the wall, a dream that feels just out of reach, a rent payment you don’t know how you will ever make?” he said.

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He also criticised the federal government’s anti-immigration drive. “The World Cup is supposed to be a celebration of the world as a whole,” Mamdani said. “And some of the decisions that we’ve seen have been taken by the federal administration is anathema to what this tournament is supposed to be about,” he said.

The overarching persona before the tournament was the US president Donald Trump; the real winner is Mamdani. The Mayor who plays Sunday league.