New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani declined to back either Spain or Argentina ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026 final, joking that every team he has supported during the tournament has ended up losing.Speaking to reporters at City Hall, Mamdani was asked which side he would be cheering for in Sunday’s final. Rather than naming a favourite, he laughed off the question, saying he did not want to bring bad luck to either team.“Everyone I root for has lost. I feel like whoever I say is going to lose at this point,” he said.The mayor instead praised the tournament and said he was looking forward to what he described as a remarkable meeting between Spain’s teenage star Lamine Yamal and Argentina captain Lionel Messi.Mamdani recalled seeing a widely shared photograph of Messi bathing Yamal as a baby, admitting he initially thought the image had been AI-generated.“I thought that the image of Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal was AI,” he said, adding that he later learned it was a genuine photograph taken years before either player could have imagined meeting on football’s biggest stage.Reflecting on the significance of the moment, Mamdani said it was “pretty incredible” that Messi and Yamal would now face each other in the World Cup final.Avoiding any prediction on the outcome, he ended with what he described as “the classic politician answer”, saying he was simply “excited for a good game.”
