MOSCOW (AP) - When Gianni Infantino is in the orbit of Vladimir Putin, the head of world soccer cannot stop beaming. Particularly when he's juggling a ball in the Kremlin or sharing screen time with Putin as they watched the World Cup.
Two years after his election, FIFA's president gives the impression of a man who can't believe the elevated circles of power he is allowed to mix in.
"We are a team," Infantino told Putin ahead of the World Cup. "Together we will show to the world what we can do."
The eagerness of the soccer bureaucrat to portray himself as an equal to the head the world's third-biggest military superpower is not concealed.