![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4716747-278517341.jpg\")
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani arrives to take part in Eid Al-Adha prayers in the Bronx borough of New York wearing an Arsenal kurta on Wednesday. (Reuters)<\/p>\n
\n\tLONDON: For a football league that prides itself on its worldwide popularity, it was a gesture that embodied the English Premier League\u2019s global appeal.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe African-born, Muslim mayor of America\u2019s most famed city performed Eid Al-Adha prayers wearing a specially designed Arsenal kurta.<\/p>\n
\n\tNew York City mayor Zohran Mamdani wore the garment to celebrate his team recently winning the English Premier League during an Eid service in the city\u2019s Bronx borough on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe images of the mayor performing prayers in the traditional kurta, made in Arsenal\u2019s blue and red away colors, went viral.<\/p>\n
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani arrives to take part in Eid Al-Adha prayers in the Bronx borough of New York wearing an Arsenal kurta on Wednesday. (Reuters)<\/p>\n
\n\tThat he donned the garment just weeks before the US hosts the FIFA World Cup, along with Mexico and Canada, made the images all the more powerful.<\/p>\n
\n\tMamdani first started supporting the north London club as a 10-year-old \u2014 about the time when the Gunners last won the league in the famed unbeaten 2003-04 season.<\/p>\n
\n\tHis uncle bought him a set of fridge magnets with the images of the team\u2019s key players, including Thierry Henry and Sylvain Wiltord.<\/p>\n
\n\tAfter Arsenal\u2019s title was confirmed last week, the 34-year-old mayor told GQ magazine: \u201cIt was a mixture of shock and there\u2019s just a wave of excitement that washes over you as you\u2019re processing; we\u2019ve been waiting for this for so long \u2014 it didn\u2019t feel real.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4716746-1921893476.jpg\")
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani attends Eid Al-Adha prayers in the Bronx borough of New York wearing an Arsenal kurta on Wednesday. (Reuters)<\/p>\n
\n\tMamdani has also become heavily involved in the politics surrounding the World Cup, particularly taking a stand against the soaring cost of tickets.<\/p>\n
\n\tLast week he announced that 1,000 tickets would be made available to New Yorkers at $50 each through a lottery system.<\/p>\n
\n\tAfter the Eid prayers, Mamdani said sacrifice was not a burden but \u201can opportunity to see ourselves as part of something larger.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cTogether, we are working to ensure every New Yorker can afford the groceries, housing and childcare they need,\u201d he said on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON: For a football league that prides itself on its worldwide popularity, it was a gesture that embodied…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-246560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}