New York City mayors have long tried to use their sports fandom to burnish their reputations as men of the people. Ed Koch joined in the champagne-fueled locker room celebration after the Mets’ Game 7 victory in the 1986 World Series, and gave each player a key to the city during the ensuing ticker-tape parade.
Perhaps the earliest example of mayoral sports fandom was Fiorello La Guardia’s love of the Yankees. On top of the six titles that the team celebrated during his time in office, La Guardia also spoke at Lou Gherig’s iconic retirement ceremony in 1939 — when Gherig revealed his ALS diagnosis — calling the Iron Horse, “the greatest guy in America.”
This question of fandom was even posed to the candidates at one of last year’s mayoral debates. When asked if they would attend a Mets World Series Game 7 or a Knicks NBA Finals Game 7 – if they were held on the same night – former Gov. Andrew Cuomo tried to thread the needle: “I’m gonna go half and half. I can make it back and forth.”
This drew a scornful laugh from then-candidate Zohran Mamdani. “This is what New Yorkers are sick of, just pick a team," Mamdani said. "I’d be there for the Knicks.”
Mamdani has attended multiple Knicks games as Mayor, including Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Mon night, but his true passion lies in another, more international sport: soccer.
And while the world’s most popular sport sometimes takes a back seat in Gotham, it’ll be front and center this summer with the FIFA World Cup kicking off across North America on June 11, making Mamdani and his passion for the Beautiful Game the perfect mayor for this moment.
Here’s why:
He’s a lifelong fan of the sport, especially of the London-based club, Arsenal.
Before moving to New York, Mamdani spent his early childhood in Uganda and South Africa, and he attributes his affinity for Arsenal to the team’s roster of star African players in the early 2000s. It probably didn’t hurt that the team was consistently one of the best in England during that time period under legendary manager Arsène Wenger — including an undefeated Premier League championship campaign in the 2003-04 season.
After a 22-year drought, Arsenal won the Premier League again this month, and Mamdani was thrilled, wrapping himself in a team flag at a recent press conference, saying “22 years I waited to put this on!”
In fact, he’s sported Arsenal gear all over the city, including a custom-made Arsenal kurta to an Eid Al-Adha prayer in the Bronx last month.
He likes international soccer too
Mamdani attended the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa as a teenager. On the "Adam Friedland Show" last fall, he recalled being in the stands and crying after Ghana’s heartbreaking loss to Uruguay in the quarterfinals that tournament. A win would have sent Ghana to the semi-finals, a first at the time for an African nation.
His affinity for African teams doesn’t seem to have dissipated as the mayor recently picked Morocco to win it all, beating the tournament-favorite France in the final.
“The heart wants what it wants,” he told the Guardian to explain his surprising prediction.
He’s played the sport since childhood
After playing on some of Manhattan's top youth soccer clubs, he was on the Bronx Science’s varsity team in high school, and was named captain of the team for his senior year. According to the Public School Athletic League, he finished his final season with eight goals, and two assists. Not bad!
“He was a sicko, like me, who was obsessed with soccer,” said Aaron Schoenfelder of the Upper West Side, who played soccer with Mamdani growing up. “It was not cool to like soccer back then. And you could barely watch it on TV.”
Schoenfelder said that after his favorite team, Fulham, upset the Italian club Juventus during their surprise run to the Europa League finals in 2010, Mamdani sent him some well-wishes via Facebook.
“I was watching on my laptop on an illegal stream,” Schoenfelder recalled. “After the game, he wrote on my wall, ‘Congrats man. I just read through the commentary of the game, seems phenomenal.’”
Mamdani continued to play as an adult in recreation leagues across the city — even after being elected to the state Assembly. His team’s name was LIRR FC, named after the Long Island Railroad.
He also created an initiative to convert 50 streets near city schools into car-free soccer pitches for kids to kick around now through the end of the World Cup, also featuring arts and craft and other activities similar to a block party.
He used his soccer skills on the campaign trail, to promote his platform and rail against the World Cup’s sky-high prices
Mamdani centered his successful mayoral campaign around lowering costs for New Yorkers, and released a campaign ad in September castigating FIFA for “price gouging” fans with the high prices for the upcoming World Cup, and demanding affordable tickets for local residents — all while showcasing his soccer skills on the field. He started a petition titled “Game Over Greed” to address the high-prices.
He also hosted the Cost of Living Classic soccer tournament back in October to highlight his affordability agenda, where local teams from across the five boroughs competed against one another. (Congrats SLOBs, or Soccer Lovers of Bushwick, for winning the championship.)
While the main World Cup grievances listed in his petition have not been addressed, the mayor announced earlier this month that the city had reached an agreement with FIFA to provide 1000 tickets to games played at the Meadowlands to New Yorkers that include round-trip bus fare, all for just $50. No other American city has created a similar program.
And if you didn’t win his lottery for tickets, there will be free watch parties across the city in each borough, featuring local food and cultural programming. And continuing their pattern of collaboration, Gov. Kathy Hochul relaxed regulations, allowing bars and restaurants to stay open later during the tournament to maximize the fun, and eased permitting for World Cup-related parties.
“Somewhere in the world, a 10-year-old will be watching. It will be the first football match they remember when they are older,” Mamdani said when announcing the affordable ticket allotment. “And when they remember that match, they won't only remember the goals that are scored, the tackles that are made, the saves that felt impossible. They'll also remember how loud the stadium sounded, how people cheered together, jumped up and down together [and] shared the beautiful game together.”
The World Cup kicks off June 11, and the final will take place on July 19 at MetLife Stadium (temporarily renamed New York New Jersey Stadium for the World Cup).
