The FIFA official song that is heard in the stadiums, “DNA (More Than A Game)”, from its title to the phrases within its lyrics, asserts what I could discover at this World Cup: “It is more than a simple game.” For almost my entire life I have watched football from the outside, from afar, thinking that I am a fan and that a match can entertain me, but not move me.
The announcement of this 2026 World Cup coming to Houston was seen as an opportunity to experience it from a journalistic perspective. A place that always puts us in the front row for unique and important events. What I did not imagine was that I would have the chance to live a game from the stands.
From that day my perspective changed; from that moment I see things differently, perhaps I am no longer a true football fan, but I do understand many things I hadn’t even thought about before.
It wasn’t only the historic moment of seeing the World Cup ball roll in a Houston stadium, a city that has sheltered me for so many years of my life; it was also the thrill of seeing what thousands hoped would come home.
Besides feeling privileged to have a seat in the stadium, the one that many fans would have wished for and perhaps could not obtain, my goal was to enjoy it for myself and for them.
“God is round,” says Mexican journalist Juan Villoro, while sociologist Eduardo Galeano said that football is the only religion that has no atheists. It unleashes passions, creates communities and elevates its best players to a status of popular deity.
In first person, I managed to witness it; perhaps I wouldn’t dare to say it is God, given my beliefs, but what I could feel is that football has a spirit and a life of its own. That spirit manages to possess those present in the stadium and millions through the screen. It makes them feel, vibrate, and get excited; it is something alive that moves anyone, it does not discriminate by age, sex or race.
That is exactly what I felt. As soon as the day of the match between Germany and Curaçao arrived, the emotion overwhelmed me as soon as I knew I would be about to take part in a World Cup.
Something I would never have thought of even in my wildest dreams. Thinking about the World Cup filled me with nostalgia when I remembered the first World Cup I can remember, which was Italia ’90. I don’t remember the games, I don’t remember the players; what I do remember is the excitement of one of my older brothers and his friends who would go to the corner store to watch the matches because there they did have a television.
By 1994, my dad had us a satellite-enabled TV to watch the games. Of that World Cup in the United States, what I remember is the mascot, a dog, and the colorful outfits of Mexico’s goalkeeper, Jorge Campos.
Who would have told me that 32 years later I would be here in this country enjoying a World Cup game. Interacting with fans, on the train, arriving and seeing the excitement of the people, the energy, which is something I will never forget, and watching them get excited by the goals of their team, stays etched in my memory. Now I think differently, understanding the reasons, and I hope this isn’t my only World Cup.
