Pro soccer players open up on spreading peace through the sport at World Cup — and which sport is ‘football’

The 2026 World Cup is shaping up to be a flash point moment in modern international relations, with the world coming to North America at a time when global peace appears delicate.

A handful of players and activists are stepping up to help promote peace through the sport. Team USA and San Jose Earthquakes defender DeJuan Jones and D.C. United forward Dominique Badji lent their platforms to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute for a seminar on how soccer can help promote positive relations between fans of competing countries. 

But with the World Cup coming to the U.S. for the first time since 1994, one point of debate amid those international relations is whether America should follow the rest of the world in calling the sport football. 

President Donald Trump even said he thinks America giving the name football to soccer, while renaming American football something else at the World Cup draw on Sunday.

Both Jones and Badji agree with Trump, but they don’t think a complete name change is feasible. 

“I think that makes the most sense, for soccer to be called football, however, we do have the NFL, so I think it would be really difficult to change the name of the NFL,” Jones told Fox News Digital. “So I think we’ll just always call it soccer and, you know, people might laugh at us for it, but we can have that as what we call the sport.” 

Badji, who was born in the African nation of Senegal, believes re-naming the sport to football would symbolically help the U.S. catch up with the rest of the world competitively in the sport. But he is also aware of American football’s cultural dominance.

“By calling it football here, you’re competing with the biggest sport in the country… I think it should be football, because that’s what the rest of the world calls it,” Badji told Fox News Digital. 

“When you talk about U.S. soccer, you’re trying to get up to speed with the rest of the world, and it’s just a little barrier in soccer-football, but ultimately I think it should be called football. But it’s a losing battle, you’re not going to be able to change American football to another name.” 

One thing that both Jones and Badji believe can be feasibly addressed in the U.S. by the time the World Cup begins is fan behavior during games.

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In 2025 alone, soccer matches across the world have been sites of violent fan behavior. 

Just this month at a game for the French club OGC France, players and staff were assaulted, spat on and punched by their own supporters after a loss, and a man in the U.K. was charged with racially abusing Bournemouth player Antoine Semenyo during a Premier League match against Liverpool. 

“The biggest thing is the fan behavior,” Jones said. “It’s important that the adults are displaying proper behavior for the kids that are becoming adults.”

Jones added of the upcoming World Cup, “There’s going to be a lot of people from a lot of different cultures, so I’m sure there’s going to be some clashes, but I think it’s going to be a great chance as well to celebrate each other’s differences and learn about each other’s cultures.

“Security will be important, and you want to make sure that it’s a safe environment for everyone, and everyone can just enjoy the games and get home safely.” 

Badji said he is disappointed with the behavior of fans at MLS games “all the time.” 

“People flipping you off, people saying slurs to you, I unfortunately have had racial slurs thrown at me. I’ve heard other slurs thrown at other people, so it’s unfortunate,” he said. 

Badji said one of his biggest hopes and goals of the upcoming World Cup is to “getting rid of some of the ignorance that comes with not knowing the cultures of different countries.” 

“Soccer will bring people together that might not speak the same language,” Badji, later adding, “Politics are so heavily involved in soccer that sometimes it sways the way people perceive other people, other teams, other countries”

It is a topic that Badji and Jones spoke about at the “Three Nations, One Game: North America’s Role in Shaping Global Sportsmanship,” panel at the Ronald Reagan Institute’s Center on Civility and Democracy (CCD) in downtown Washington, D.C., on Dec. 2. They delivered their speeches alongside Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., and Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House’s FIFA World Cup 2026 Task Force. 

CCD Director Fred Ryan told Fox News Digital he believes that even more than the fans, the players are accountable for showing respect on the field in order to promote a peaceful environment. 

“There’s been a few disappointing things from time to time, there’s an athlete on the field who does not show respect for their opponent or rules of the game or the referee,” Ryan said. “On the field, we want to applaud good sportsmanship, we want to applaud people who respect their opponent… and people who respect the rules of the game.” 

For Jones, one of his avenues for maintaining respect and promoting unity as a player on the field is by channeling his devotion to Jesus Christ.

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“I believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins and every day, honestly, when I’m reading my Bible and praying and definitely before I step onto the pitch, I just ask for the lord to protect me and to guide me when I’m out there,” Jones said. 

“One of the biggest things Jesus teaches is just to love your neighbor as yourself… I think a lot of times in society, people are looking out for themselves, and whatever gets them ahead but if we all just had a little bit more empathy and looked to our neighbors and see what we could do to help instead of always get something and receiving… I think that would go a long way in making the world more peaceful.” 

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