Speaker
Tarek Panja
Appearances over time
1 episodes
Episodes
1
Podcasts
Quotes & moments
The 2026 World Cup is the largest ever, featuring 48 national teams.
Scotland had not qualified for the World Cup since 1998, making this their first appearance in 28 years.
A FIFA referee from Somalia who was on the list to work the 2026 World Cup was turned back at the US border, sent back to Turkey.
Despite deep fears about US immigration policy, ICE enforcement, and geopolitical tension, the 2026 World Cup started and quickly became a force for human connection. Tournament after tournament, it delivers a brief moment of global uplift that no one can manufacture.
Spain's Lamine Yamal, one of the most famous athletes on the planet, is based in Chattanooga, Tennessee for the tournament. There he is — walking into a Walmart. The World Cup has a way of turning ordinary American towns into improbable global stages.
The University of Kansas marching band learned the Algerian national anthem to welcome Team Algeria to Lawrence, Kansas. Local fans showed up in Algeria jerseys. A college town that had never experienced anything like a global event suddenly became one.
Iran is playing World Cup matches in Los Angeles while in active military conflict with the United States. This is the first time in the tournament's history that a team has been in military conflict with a host nation. The Iranian players had to stay in Tijuana, restricted to entering the US for one day at a time.
In 1998, when Iran beat the US 2-1 at the World Cup, Iranian-American Kevin was 11 years old, sitting in an Ohio restaurant surrounded by American fans, quietly cheering for both teams. That game was the first time his two identities were pitted against each other in the sport he loved — and it wouldn't be the last.
When Kevin decided to take his father Farhad to see the US-Iran game at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, Farhad planned the itinerary with legendary precision — maps, train times, two backup copies. But Kevin had one addition: they'd start the trip with Farhad's lifelong dream of visiting Mecca. A religious pilgrimage followed by a sports pilgrimage.
Scotland hadn't qualified for the World Cup since 1998. Their fans, the Tartan Army, arrived in Boston and turned the city into a 24/7 party, drinking the city dry but leaving everyone happy. Their fan culture was deliberately built as an antidote to the football hooliganism of English fans in the '80s and '90s — and Boston loved them so much the Globe gave them a full front page.
Norwegian World Cup fans arrived in New York and New Jersey, performed their famous Viking rowing chant on a subway escalator, and then got bused by the city of Dallas to Buc-ee's — the giant American gas station that became an unlikely pilgrimage site. International fans encountering America at full volume is the essence of this World Cup.
After being eliminated without a win, the Iranian team wrote on the stadium dressing room whiteboard: 'We came to Los Angeles with pride, competed with honor, and leave with dignity.' When producer Anna Foley read it to Farhad, he said: 'They wrote what I feel.' Four words that captured everything.
Farhad spent five years trying to get a US visa before the Iranian Revolution. One day he showed up at the embassy — the whole street was filled with people. Then a consular officer called his name with no microphone, no speaker, just his voice. Farhad has replayed that moment every day of his 47 years in America.
When Iran's national anthem plays, there is widespread booing in the stadium. When the team takes the field, it becomes a home game. The Iranian community is publicly debating whether supporting the team means supporting the regime — and that internal struggle is visible on the players' faces.
Tarek Panja met Farouk, a Jordanian immigrant who has lived in the US for 46 years and was heading to Dallas to watch Jordan play Lionel Messi. He beamed about what America gave him, then said 'Jordan is my love.' The World Cup is proving you don't have to lash yourself to one flag.
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