A stunning evening sun was setting behind Union City on Wednesday. It made it slightly harder to see the giant screen that had been set up for the Brazil v Scotland watch party in Hudson River Park, but not enough to ruin the vibe of a New York City World Cup evening. Partly it didn’t matter because the clutch of Brazilians watching the game, kitted out in canary yellow and “100% Jesus” headbands, were already in full samba mode, given how comfortable their 3-0 win was. But mainly it was because this was a beautiful World Cup moment.

This is my eighth World Cup. The outdoor screening, combined with the gentle breeze off the Hudson – I had already navigated the hubbub in Times Square, colonised by chanting Germans and flag-waving Ecuadorians – was as captivating as anything I’ve experienced in Marseille, Seoul, Cape Town or Rio de Janeiro. New York City is perhaps the only place in the world where a World Cup may go unnoticed but the tournament genuinely feels like an intrinsic part of life in large parts of the city, certainly since the Knicks’ victory parade finished. In fact, the feelgood endorphins seem to have segued seamlessly into World Cup fever for many in the city.

“It’s great going to Times Square and seeing all the fans,” said George Crabtree from Brooklyn. Christian Parelli, a New Jersey teacher, a committed football fan already, was enjoying seeing the city wake up to the game. “It’s cool to see the soccer excitement,” he said. “It’s a really good time for sport with the Stanley Cup, the Knicks and the World Cup.”

That said, there is one name that comes up a lot when asking whether New York City has World Cup fever, and it’s not Lionel Messi. “It feels like [it has] especially with [New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani’s] involvement, being a host for people,” said Aditya Shetty, who works in IT. Like Mamdani, Shetty is an Arsenal fan. “The way he talks, you can tell he’s been following soccer for a while and he really wants the country to embrace it and make people feel welcome because he loves the game. Many people from those [participating] countries are here, Brazilians, Scottish, Moroccans. This is naturally a multicultural city and the World Cup is reminding us of it.”

With him is Laleh Emadi, who works in healthcare and isn’t a hardcore soccer fan but is fully into the World Cup. “The camaraderie of going out to watch a game has me extra excited,” she said. “I feel like the city has done a really great job of getting people out and about. The mayor has all these tips, beer-and-dinner deals to watch the World Cup at a great price. He’s really embracing it on behalf of the city.”

It helps that Mamdani is riding an extraordinary sporting wave. Two of his beloved teams have won titles in the last few weeks: the Knicks took home their first NBA championship since 1973 and Arsenal took their first Premier League title for 22 years. And even Europeans concede that he really does get football.

It isn’t just that Mamdani is everywhere and emotionally engaged in all aspects of the World Cup: at the games, posting weather warnings, commenting knowledgeably on outcomes. It is his adeptness at using the event to underline political messages, without seeming awkward. It is a reminder of former British prime minister Harold Wilson’s line about 1966: “Have you ever noticed how England only ever win the World Cup under Labour governments?” All politicians make hay when the World Cup sun shines but Mamdani is so much more skilled than most.

To outsiders, it looks like Mamdani is the face of the USA here, or at least the idealistic version of the country children around the world were once taught about at school. While the presidential administration was busy issuing travel bans, Mamadani posted a slick video greeting to New York City, leaning into its reputation as a city of immigrants, finishing with the phrase: “Welcome home!”

While Fifa president Gianni Infantino was arguing that it was normal for fans to pay large sums for tickets in the US market, Mamdani managed to secure $50 tickets for New Yorkers. When Fifa decided that water bottles weren’t allowed in stadiums – another move to sweat the asset with overpriced stadium drinks – it was Mamdani, not Donald Trump, who spoke out before the rule was changed. And when New Jersey Transit initially announced $150 train tickets to the MetLife Stadium, it was Mamdani and New York governor Kathy Hochul who put on $20 shuttle buses.

Indeed cost is the big gripe at the watch party and people say that’s on Fifa. “That’s the only problem, we wish it was cheaper,” said Crabtree. “It’s too expensive, especially for locals,” said Parelli. “If I’d won the [ticket] lottery I’d have been able to go but we’re pretty much priced out.” And if young professionals in New York City have been excluded, then something is rotten in the state of Fifa and it emphasises Mamdani’s contrast to Infantino in making it, as far as he can, a genuine World Cup for all. (Fifa says profits from the World Cup will be funneled into football’s grassroots.)

Whether these interventions make a big difference, the PR win for Mamdani is evident. When the Trump administration threatened to flood New York City with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, Mamdani articulated the spirit of the World Cup in forceful and sincere terms.

“The World Cup is supposed to be a celebration of the world as a whole,” Mamdani said. “And some of the decisions that we’ve seen have been taken by the federal administration is anathema to what this tournament is supposed to be about. We want this to be a tournament that reflects our commitment of us being part of something larger than ourselves and that is the world’s games, which everyone should be allowed to be a part of.”

Jules Rimet, the idealistic Frenchman who founded the World Cup as a means of bringing nations together, could not have put it better. Yet it has fallen to a New Yorker to express what the World Cup can be at its best.

To be fair to Infantino, few can match Mamdani in oratory. He is millennial kryptonite to Gen X sterility. But for those of us not used to his rhetoric, watching the cadence and rhythm of his speech at the Knicks’ parade was a revelation. It isn’t just that he’s gifted at articulating the moment, making New Yorkers feel as one. It is the ability to segue into left-leaning themes without noticeably gatecrashing the party.

Right now this tournament has been largely absent of Trump, a stark contrast to Mamdani’s omnipresence. Admittedly the president has more on his plate than Mamdani, but he did manage to attend a Knicks game during the NBA finals, where he was booed. It’s a risk he will presumably take again at the final, where Infantino has announced he and Trump will be jointly awarding the trophy.

The fact that US secretary of state Marco Rubio made a personal intervention to ensure that the mother of Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha received a visa to watch her son, and that travel restrictions on Iran have been eased, seem to be an indication that some in the Trump administration realise they’re three goals down to Mamdani in this World Cup. Still, maybe USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino and Folarin Balogin can yet save the day for Trump: a Latino migrant worker and a British-Nigerian, whose US passport claim comes from his birthright citizenship.