Pope Leo XIV says he will support U.S. team at World Cup

Pope Leo XIV gave the U.S. men’s national team a symbolic boost on June 6, saying he would “certainly support the US” when the World Cup begins next week and wishing the squad “all the best.” The remark came aboard the papal flight from Rome to Madrid as the Chicago-born pontiff began a June 6-12 apostolic journey to Spain, his first major European trip as pope.

The comment carried extra weight because Leo, born Robert Prevost, is the first U.S.-born leader of the global Catholic Church. In a country where soccer has long had to compete for attention, a papal nod adds a different kind of legitimacy, one rooted in identity as much as athletics. The men’s team is heading into a tournament that American organizers and fans alike are treating as a test of soccer’s place in the national mainstream.

The 2026 World Cup will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, and FIFA says it will be the biggest edition yet, with 48 teams, 104 matches and 16 host cities. Mexico City will stage the opener on June 11, 2026, and the final is scheduled for July 19 in New York/New Jersey. For U.S. soccer, the timing matters: the tournament arrives as the sport is becoming more central to American sports culture, with the national team playing for a broader audience on home soil.

Leo’s support for the United States also sits alongside his deep ties to Peru, where he served for decades as a missionary and bishop before becoming pope. In excerpts from a September 2025 interview for the book Leo XIV: Citizen of the World, Missionary of the 21st Century, he said he would probably root for Peru over the United States in a hypothetical World Cup matchup. Vatican News said he framed that preference as stemming from his “affective bonds” to Peru. Peru did not qualify for the 2026 tournament, leaving American fans with the papal blessing this time.

Asked on the same trip whether he preferred Real Madrid or Barcelona, Leo paused and answered: “The pope is for all teams.” The line fit the posture he has tried to project in the early months of his pontificate, one of building bridges and avoiding polarization. In a World Cup that will stretch across three countries and 16 cities, even a passing answer from the pope became a reminder that major sports events now reach well beyond the field, into religion, migration and the search for national belonging.