“It was all a surprise to me, honestly. They just told us that we have to go, and I had no choice but to go, so I showed up. I guess it was a cool experience, obviously.  Being in the White House as a first time, it’s always wonderful, but I’m not one for the politics, so it wasn’t that exciting. It was a bit weird. I was caught by surprise when he started about all the politics with Iran and everything. It was kind of like, ‘I just wanna play football, man.'”

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Paul Kennedy edited Soccer America for 41 years (1985-2026). He began writing for SA in 1974. He started writing for France Football in 1978 and has served on in Ballon d'Or jury since 2007.