Next Stop, Qatar: The Christmas Cup
November is here and the biggest showcase of football could not come sooner. It’s like waiting for Christmas morning to open your presents. Fox Sports — one of the broadcast rights holders for the tournament — even ran their World Cup campaign under that theme.
Looking at this commercial — one that depicts American actor Jon Hamm as Santa Claus, putting together the best Christmas celebration for the World Cup — I reminisce about the enjoyable moments of the World Cup in my childhood. Don’t get me wrong, I still greatly enjoy the World Cup, but sometimes it just feels like you grow out of things.
Like with Christmas, at some point in time we lose our awe towards these once sacred holidays. Still, we continue to measure our lives based on the number of World Cups we have seen.
At 20 years old, I have lived through five World Cup cycles and I’m stoked to witness yet another one this winter. Growing up, my mom would tell me stories of how she experienced the World Cup as a kid.
“There was the fever of the World Cup book of all the players and teams, and we all wanted to get the little stickers,” my mother said, remembering how she would send her brother, to la plaza to play for more stamps.
“We used to meet a lot of children in the square in front of the parish to play volados to exchange or to win the stamps,” my uncle said, who remembers playing by merit of a coin toss for his favorite players.
While the 2002 Japan/Korea World Cup was technically the first one I lived through, I don’t remember much about it since I was only a few months old. The only thing I remember about the 2006 edition of the tournament in Germany is getting a México national team uniform for Christmas that year. It had the logo of the tournament with three happy faces and the symbol of the trophy. Certainly, the logo encapsulates the motto of that year’s tournament: “time to make friends.”
South Africa 2010 was my most memorable World Cup. I remember Diego Forlan of Uruguay and his formidable skill with the Jabulani. I recall yelling after Javier “El Chicharito” Hernadez’s goal against France, only to later hear how special it was for him that his first World Cup goal was against the same country that his grandfather scored his first goal against when he competed in the World Cup. That same year I also remember the theme song — Shakira’s “Waka Waka” — and Luis Suarez’s temporary moment of craziness when he blocked a goal attempt and was sent off against Ghana. The final was memorable too. Airing late in the afternoon, I remember staying up until almost 11 p.m. watching the match and later Spain’s celebration, walking up the steps of the stadium to receive the trophy from then FIFA president, Sepp Blatter.
How could I forget one of Mexico’s saddest moments in the World Cup; losing 2-1 against the Netherlands in Brazil 2014. With this came the birth of #Noerapenal and a lifelong denial period for Mexican soccer fans. In that same tournament, we witnessed Lionel Messi’s closest run to winning a World Cup; falling short against Germany in the final.
From bitter moments in Brazil to joyful excitement in Russia, Mexican fans felt some sort of vindication when Hirving Lozano scored an only goal against the current champion — Germany. For a México fan, the desire to make it to the fifth game of the tournament keeps us hopeful. My uncle remembers the Mexico vs. Bulgaria match of 1994 as a time when we almost consolidated that hope.
“Unfortunately, in the round of 16 against Bulgaria in a penalty shootout, we were once again just a step away from the next stage,” he said.
In that regard, I would like to never lose the excitement of the World Cup. Now my uncle says he lives the excitement through another lens.
“Now with my children, it is reliving that stage of the World Cup with the collection of stamps,” he said. ”Completing an album, which reminds me of those times to check with the players and the stamps and now to complete it with my children.”
At the end of the day, it is a competition, but it’s also entertainment. Enjoy every second of it as if it was your first World Cup. Keep up the excitement of a little kid waking up on Christmas morning.
José Romo-González is a junior writing about the FIFA Qatar 2022 World Cup. His column “Next Stop: Qatar” runs every other Friday.