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Belgium fans reacted with jubilation after the national team trounced the USA in a World Cup game that was overshadowed by the controversy over Donald Trump’s lobbying to overturn the suspension of the striker Falorin Balogun.
Belgium’s prime minister, Bart De Wever, has yet to comment on the national team’s triumph, but the official Instagram account of his cat offered a sardonic, albeit indirect sign of satisfaction. Maximus, De Wever’s beloved cat, was shown lying on a rug holding a soft toy in the image of the US president. “I slept really well last night. And you?” reads the speech bubble in Dutch.
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Maximus’s Instagram account, which is managed by De Wever’s team, often strays into political territory, with ironic, albeit oblique comments on fellow politicians or events.
Belgian fans, many clad in national red, yellow and black colours, gathered in large crowds across the country to watch the game, despite the ۲am local kick-off time on Tuesday. “The Belgian national team is our national pride, so we have to support them, even at night,” one supporter, Jens Boden, ۲۳, told the newspaper De Standaard from a screening in Kalmthout, near the Dutch border. Reporting from Kalmthout, De Standaard said crowds booed images of the Americans and Gianni Infantino, the president of Fifa, which took the decision to lift the suspension of Balogun, after Trump’s lobbying. In Brussels, supporters set fire to an American flag.
The retired Belgium defender Philippe Albert, a centre-back for Newcastle United in the ۱۹۹۰s, described the Red Devils’ victory as “a real slap in the face for Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino”.
“They tried to destabilise a little country, but Belgium has shown that it has a big heart,” Albert, now a football commentator, told the Francophone daily Le Soir. “Despite a far-from-optimal preparation the Devils all responded.”
Amid celebrations, the national team’s social media post after the emphatic ۴-۱ victory saying “Overturn this” went viral. Also gaining vast numbers of likes and clicks were clips of the teams on-pitch celebrations mocking Donald Trump’s dancing. After Romelu Lukaku scored the final goal for Belgium, the team celebrated by imitating Trump’s stiff arm-shuffling moves to YMCA. The midfielder Axel Witsel was quoted by the Dutch public broadcaster VRT as saying it had been a group idea.
Social media users also offered memes on Belgium’s victory, from fake images of a dour-looking Donald Trump with his face painted in the victors’ national colours, to the Manneken Pis – the emblematic Brussels statute of a peeing boy – urinating into a green-coloured Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, the Washington landmark that has undergone a botched renovation under the US president.
Belgium’s triumph came on the eve of the Nato summit in Ankara, which De Wever and Trump are due to attend. But the Belgian leader will be on less comfortable ground: Belgium has long been one of the lowest defence spenders in the ۳۲-country alliance, although it has pledged to meet Nato’s ۵% of GDP defence spending target. According to Nato’s latest figures, Belgium was expected to meet the ۲% spending target in ۲۰۲۵, but the Belga news agency, citing an official report, reported on Monday that Belgium would be spending only ۱.۹۳% on defence in ۲۰۲۹.
While Belgium’s defence spending is politically contentious, football has long been a unifying force in the country of ۱۱.۹ million people, which has three official languages and six parliaments.
Twenty years ago one former Belgian prime minister said his country was “an accident of history” and shared only “the king, the national football team, some beers”.
Belgian media reported on Tuesday that King Philippe will travel to Los Angeles to watch the quarter-final against Spain on Friday. Before last night’s match, the monarchy’s X account posted an image of King Philippe apparently speaking to the national coach, Rudi Garcia. The post read: “May fair-play and the best team prevail tonight: come on Belgium!”
