President Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin swapped some sports memorabilia at their summit Monday in Helsinki, Finland.
According to ABC News, Putin spokesman Dimitry Peskov told TASS, the Russian state news agency, that Trump presented the Russian leader with one of Alexander Ovechkin's own Washington Capitals jerseys, plus a hockey puck, as summit gifts. In return, as cameras captured from the presidents' joint press conference, Putin gave Trump a soccer ball from the World Cup, which Russia hosted this year.
"Mr. President, I will give this ball to you, and now the ball is in your court," Putin said through a translator, per ABC News.
Pres. Putin gifts Pres. Trump a soccer ball: "Now the ball is in your court. All the more that the United States will host the World Cup in 2026."
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 16, 2018
"That's very nice. That will go to my son Barron...in fact, Melania, there you go," Trump says, tossing the ball to the first lady pic.twitter.com/0pphHKLtCR
Ovechkin, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy in leading the Capitals to their first Stanley Cup win this summer, may have been smiling at the sight of Trump presenting Putin, an avid hockey fan, with one of his jerseys. The Russian winger has long joked about his connection to Putin, playfully suggesting before the Stanley Cup Final that the president had called to wish him luck against the Vegas Golden Knights.