Zahran Mamdani remains neutral in the FIFA World Cup final.
New York City Mayor Zahran Mamdani refused to support Spain or Argentina ahead of the 2026 World Cup final, joking that every team he supported during the tournament ended up losing.Speaking to reporters at the city hall, Mamdani was asked which team he would support in the final on Sunday. Instead of naming a favorite, he laughed off the question, saying he didn’t want to bring bad luck to either team.He said, “Everyone I support has lost. I feel that whoever I support will lose at this stage.”The mayor praised the tournament and said that he was looking forward to what he described as the wonderful meeting between the young Spanish star, Lamine Yamal, and the Argentine captain, Lionel Messi.
Mamdani noted that he saw a widely circulated photo of Messi bathing Yamal when he was a child, admitting that he initially thought the image was created by artificial intelligence.“I thought the photo of Lionel Messi and Lamin Yamal was from artificial intelligence,” he said, adding that he later learned it was a real photo taken years before either player imagined meeting on football’s biggest stage.Reflecting on the importance of that moment, Mamdani said it was “unbelievable” for Messi and Yamal to face each other in the World Cup final.He avoided any prediction about the outcome, ending with what he described as a “classic political answer”, saying he was simply “excited for a good game”.