World Cup superfan tackles tourney with help from his friends ⚽️🏆

Victor scored face-value tickets and had 'random Europeans' crashing at his place.

If you went into the 2026 FIFA World Cup hoping to attend multiple matches across several different host cities, there were a couple different ways to go about it.

You could spend a big pile of money on secondary ticket markets.

Or you could do it the way Carroll Gardens resident and World Cup superfan Victor did it: By spending years building an international community with fellow soccer fans who trade tickets, jerseys and favors at major tournaments around the globe.

“It’s been 15-plus years of maintaining contacts with other people who like to go to games, and cultivating relationships,” Victor says.

Victor, who’s lived in the neighborhood for 16 years, attended his first World Cup as a kid growing up in the Bay Area when the US hosted the tournament in 1994. He’s since attended the 2014 (Brazil), 2018 (Russia), 2022 (Qatar) and now 2026 (US/Mexico/Canada) editions — with a few UEFA European Championships sprinkled in as well.

He’s attended nine games in five cities at this World Cup, and will hit his 10th game at Sunday’s final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. He says he paid face value for all of his tickets, buying and selling within the network he’s built up over the years, keeping touch in various WhatsApp groups.

“If you are able to sell tickets at face value to your contacts and your friends, you’ll be able to have access to more of these tickets in the future,” he says.

That collaborative spirit goes beyond tickets: Victor has had World Cup travelers crashing at his place in the neighborhood throughout the tournament.

“I’m basically hosting a bunch of random Europeans in my spare bedroom, and I’m not charging them. They stay in the extra bedroom, they think of me in four years — you scratch my back, I scratch yours,” he says. “I think I’ve had 10 people stay with me throughout the tournament.”

Victor’s parents are Brazilian, and as such he’s a big Brazil fan. He was in the stands when the team’s World Cup run came to an end in the Round of 16 against Norway, but he says he’ll still come away from this World Cup with a lot of fond memories.

He says some of his favorite experiences have involved interactions with Scottish fans.

“I have a Scottish friend who got me a ticket at face value for the Brazil-Scotland game in Miami. Before the game, I gave him a Brazil jersey, and he gave me a kilt — so I wore a kilt to the game,” Victor says.

The Scots, who famously drank Boston dry when their team played there, also made an impression here in New York.

“There’s a direct flight from Glasgow, so a lot of the Scottish people came here first. For the first couple days they were just kind of roaming around New York City,” he says. “I was at some bar in the East Village, and then out of nowhere like 60 Scottish people materialized.”

Now he’s gearing up for Sunday’s final between Spain and Argentina in New Jersey. He says he’s had mostly smooth experiences getting to and from the stadium using the free shuttle buses from Manhattan.

“You just have to leave pretty much immediately at the whistle [at the end of the game],” he says. “Because otherwise, you’re gonna be stuck in traffic.”

While this World Cup is coming to an end, Victor and his friends plan to continue helping each other enjoy big games for years into the future.

“If everyone can save a few bucks here and there, they can create new memories, go to more games — lather-rinse-repeat every four years.”

— Travis Hunter