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{"id":24213,"date":"2026-06-13T15:32:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T15:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/europes-top-sports-official-talks-panini-stickers-and-world-cup-picks\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T15:32:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T15:32:16","slug":"europes-top-sports-official-talks-panini-stickers-and-world-cup-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/europes-top-sports-official-talks-panini-stickers-and-world-cup-picks\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe&#8217;s top sports official talks Panini stickers and World Cup picks"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Blue Light News caught up with European Sports Commissioner Glenn Micallef in Brussels last week to get his top tips for the World Cup. The 36-year-old Micallef is the youngest member of President Ursula von der Leyen\u2019s team of EU commissioners, and the Maltese official has <a href=\"https:\/\/url4027.email.politico.com\/ss\/c\/u001.6g0Zd3AyneOViJYBXgbV6wrEf3wYRX0IRoGb1DrQ8FGujf4ExVVr1zvw1TiWT_P01DTDS3qooGjmamw9XWJlgIFVPvknnKgCC-MmRzTTaT-duMFcymWSCUIx3SDX1Ezn\/4rd\/G3oZvRzCRVy2MV1seQg0Ew\/h6\/h001.ETyZOuy0uXRvARMA_VxQu7ZATX3s6bvsrMA8iSDxw_0\" target=\"_blank\">repeatedly chided FIFA<\/a>during his tenure, on everything from supporter safety and security to overall governance.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike previous officials who have held Brussels\u2019 top sports role, Micallef is a genuine soccer fan, who has been busy collecting World Cup Panini stickers and sharing daily tournament fun facts with his staff.<\/p>\n<p><b>Best World Cup memory?<\/b> &#8220;Zinedine Zidane scoring twice in the 1998 final against Brazil. It was the first World Cup final [I watched] so it has a special place in my heart.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><b>Favorite World Cup?<\/b> &#8220;Either France &#8217;98 &#8230; or Brazil 2014.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><b>Which player are you most excited to watch in 2026?<\/b> &#8220;Michael Olise (of France).&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><b>Bold prediction for 2026?<\/b> &#8220;Portugal will do very well.&#8221; (<i>Blue Light News pointed out that Portugal perhaps didn&#8217;t meet the definition of bold, given some oddsmakers have them as fourth favorites to win the tournament, to which Micallef sharpened his forecast.<\/i>) &#8220;They might surprise some people and make it all the way to the end.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><b>Who\u2019s going to win? <\/b>&#8220;Spain or France.&#8221; (<i>Blue Light News: &#8220;Can you commit to one or the other?&#8221;<\/i>) &#8220;My heart says Spain.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/glenn-micallef-fifa-gianni-infantino-world-cup\/\" target=\"_blank\">Read the full Q&amp;A here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blue Light News caught up with European Sports Commissioner Glenn Micallef in Brussels last week to get his top tips for the World Cup. The 36-year-old Micallef is the youngest member of President Ursula von der Leyen\u2019s team of EU commissioners, and the Maltese official has repeatedly chided FIFAduring his tenure, on everything from supporter [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}