Just like that, Freddy the viral World Cup soccer fan is BACK.
It had been a while since we heard anything out of the German soccer fanatic that took over the internet as he traveled across the United States and documented his experience. The World Cup itself has been exciting, but some of the best content of the event has been visitors from other countries realizing how great the United States of America truly is.
Freddy really set the bar high as he drove through the U.S., discovered American establishments like Waffle House and Buc-ee’s, and crazily got connected with country music star Ella Langley.
But like all good things, his run on social media came to an end in early July thanks to some miserable people on the internet trying to ruin everything. Social media sleuths were trying to uncover his identity, and claiming that he had been to the U.S. before and was just trying to engagement farm with his pro-America posts.
So Freddy deactivated his account, and the world was worse off because of it. If you ask me, the excitement for the world cup even decreased (okay, that might just be because the USMNT got knocked out in embarrassing fashion). Many thought that Freddy would never return after social media did its thing and ruined it… but earlier today, Freddy made his triumphant return, saying in a post:
“Hello again. We’re currently in Clemson, South Carolina. I’ve decided to come back here to document the final part of our road trip. The main reason I deactivated my account two weeks ago was that things became increasingly toxic. For some people, it’s unfortunately unfathomable that a good story can exist without some kind of hidden agenda behind it.
There was even a Reddit group going through my entire account trying to find anything they could use to reveal my identity. I know this was only a small percentage of people, but after a while it became exhausting.”
Yep… a couple of bad apples soiling it for everyone else.
Freddy says it was only when strangers online went out of their way to show kindness and express gratitude that he decided to return to social media:
“During the last two weeks, I received so many kind messages on Instagram, and they really made me realize how many people genuinely enjoyed following the trip. Some people even told me that their grandparents regularly ask them, ‘What are the Germans up to today?’
I think that’s really cool. I decided to continue because I realized that the overwhelming majority of people loved following along. A small group of very loud people shouldn’t be able to ruin something that brought so many others joy.”
Amen to that.
While Freddy was updating the world and making his return, he also made sure to clear the air and address all of the doubters that suggested he was “secretly American.” The German soccer fan assured everyone that, though he had been to America one time before, he had never been all of the places he explored this time around:
“I also want to clear something up, as people who follow me on Instagram already know. I’ve been to the United States before. This is not my first visit, and I’ve never claimed that it was. The last time I was here was in January 2022, when I visited New York and Philadelphia. A lot of people shared my Raising Cane’s post from November 2025 to make it look like I was secretly American. That post wasn’t from the United States, it was from my trip to Saudi Arabia.
This is my first time back in the U.S. in more than four years, and apart from Boston, I’d never visited any of the places we’ve been to on this trip before. That’s probably why many people assumed it was our first time in America, because for all of these places, it actually was. And let me tell you, Ohio and Alabama are very different from New York City or Los Angeles.”
Good to have you back, Freddy. If you are reading this, hit us up here at Whiskey Riff so we can show you all the hot spots in Nashville before you head across the pond.
