Chelsea -hero Cole Palmer has explained his bewilder response to the bizarre presence of Donald Trump during the Trophy parties of the Club World Cup Champions.
The American president stole the show at the Metlife Stadium on Sunday when he hit himself in the front and in the middle of the trophy lift of the blues.
The 79-year-old had received a VIP treatment when he visited the 3-0 victory of Chelsea in addition to First Lady Melania and FIFA president Gianni Infantino for 80,000 spectators.
And he stepped into the spotlight after the last whistle, after he had the honor of presenting the blues with the trophy.
It was expected that the supreme commander would go aside after he had given the trophy to Chelsea captain Reece James – as usual – but instead refused to give up the stage.
Trump's presence on stage left Chelsea players stunned with Palmer, who took a brace in the victory, visibly not impressed when he was pronounced: “What does he do?”
The English football star later expressed his confusion and confirmed that the president's participation was completely not planned.
“I knew he would be here, but I didn't know he would be in the stands when we lifted the trophy, so I was a bit confused, yes,” he said via Nizaar Kinsella from BBC Sport.
Trump had previously awarded Palmer the Golden Ball Award with the 23-year-old midfielder who looked a bit stunned during that presentation.
After presenting medals to both the victors and the losers, the supreme commander was seen in the front and in the middle while the blues raised the trophy.
After his presentation of the trophy to Chelsea, he was asked to leave the podium by Infantino, but chose bizarre to sit.
After he was seen near Metlife, Trump appeared in the stadium that was loudly cheers from the 80,000 attendees.
Trump's son, Donald Jr. And his girlfriend Bettina Anderson was also seen on the way to the game, and they shared a kiss on the runway while they waited for the president to arrive.
The outing falls on the first birthday of the murder attempt Trump survived in Butler, Pennsylvania last year, and important security measures were taken for his arrival.
The president was put on the screen at Metlife during the singing of the national anthem prior to the game, and reports came from the stadium that he was stuck before the stadium camera cut away from him.
Metlife Stadium later echoed with more anger when Trump, accompanied by Infantino, went his way to the field to present the champions the trophy.
The involvement of the president in the trophy presentation after the game, which further complicates the required security around the American supreme commander.
“When you perform the threat and risk assessment, you cover something that could go wrong: if they were at a massive meeting, what if the stage collapsed?” Nigel Thomas, a former soldier of the British Special Service (SAS) and founder of Security Training Firm, Blue Mountain Group, said the Athletic.
'For example, we will have a standard operational procedure. You must be prepared for it, and that takes communication with stadium security and emergency services. '
Despite the safety risk, Trump did not shy away from the spotlight when he struck himself in the celsea celebrations.