The 2026 FIFA World Cup hasn’t even officially begun, and yet soccer fans traveling to America to watch the games are already taking over the internet.
North America is the host of the tournament this year, with the United States, Canada and Mexico all set to host World Cup games. Many football stadiums across the country – like in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia Seattle and the San Francisco Bay area – will be transformed into football stadiums for the competition.
Teams from all across the world have already made their way over to the States (and Canada and Mexico) to set up their base camps for the duration of the World Cup. If you’ve been on social media the past week or so, you’ve probably seen that many of the soccer teams from across the pond are already struggling to acclimate to the humidity of the southern United States.
Some teams set up in the south – like Uzbekistan (Atlanta, Georgia), Japan (Nashville, Tennessee) and Spain (Chattanooga, Tennessee) – are experiencing hot, American summers at their finest. And while the teams prepare to play for the World Cup Trophy, fans from all over the world are already making their way to the United States.
And a few of them have gone viral online documenting their experiences thus far.
One Germany fan who goes by the name “Freddy” on X has already covered Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama in the past week or so. He’s become a social media darling because he’s excitedly enmeshed himself in the American culture by… doing things like going to Walmart:
Go into any Walmart across the country and you’ll definitely experience a crash course in Red, White and Blue.
Freddy continued his trek across the south by hitting up a Waffle house, and giving it a 10 out of 10. He also went at 1 a.m. in the morning, which is truly and undoubtedly the American way:
Does it get any more American than that? Yes, it sure does.
The German soccer fan took it up a notch later that same day by tubing down the Chattahoochee River. His previous Waffle House post obviously got a lot of attention, but it was this tubing update that really showed the world he was going all in on the United States experience:
WAY DOWN YONDER ON THE CHATTAHOOCHEE.
How do you follow up an Alan Jackson experience like that? Freddy chose to take in some NBA Finals action, and picked the perfect place to do it:
There’s no doubt he felt God in that Chili’s.
One of the more recent updates the world has gotten from the now-viral social media account was his recent stop at a mom-and-pop gas station deep in rural Alabama. There’s nothing special about this convenience store, and yet it appears to have taken the foreigner’s breath away:
And if he thought that gas station was special… he must have been floored when he finally stopped in at a Buc-ee’s.
It appears that late last night, Freddy finally saw the bright, beaver beacon of light and pulled over. Safe to say his experience at the growing gas station chain was all he could have hoped for:
So happy to see someone like Freddy enjoying all that America has to offer.
And he’s not the only one. Another soccer fan from Sweden named Elsa has made her way over to the States, and it appears that she got her trip started in Indiana. She shared an update that quickly went viral of a hole in the wall diner where she says she got the best food she’s ever had:
U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
It was there where she also had a seemingly spiritual experience trying ranch for the first time ever.
“Why did no one tell me ranch sauce is like crack? EUROPE WE NEED RANCH ASAP.”
Don’t know how you could live without ranch… just another reason why America is the best.
Elsa’s journey also took her to a convenience store at some point, where she said she felt as if she was starring in some sort of American movie as she bought a Twinkie and Combos:
And the Swedish soccer fan’s next day was very eventful.
Not only did she witness an Amish horse and buggy first hand, she also got to visit the home of the legendary actor James Dean in Fairmount, Indiana:
And last, Fiago, another German, who was absolutely blown away by Chicago. From the parks to the riverwalk, to the food, he was having the time of his life in the Windy City (the birthplace of Whiskey Riff by the way).
Another aspect of American life… patriotism. According to Fiago, this kind of love of country is completely unheard of in Germany, and perhaps understandably so. He joked that Germany hasn’t been patriotic in about 80 years.
Oh, and nothing beats a flyover… the European mind can’t comprehend:
Safe to say the North American World Cup is already off to a great start, eh? Of course, the negative discourse on social media is all about how much America sucks and how it’s a terrible place to host the World Cup, but from the folks on the ground, it’s been nothing short of incredible.
I’d highly recommend giving those these few accounts a follow as they continue to update the world (and rack up thousands upon thousands of likes) on their American experience ahead of – and presumably during – the World Cup. The group stages get started in the next week and run through the end of June. Then the round of 32 begins, and the tournament runs all the through the middle of July when the 2026 World Cup Final takes place on July 19 in New Jersey.
