As the World Cup comes to North America for the first time in three decades, many people are taking the opportunity to surprise their dads with the ultimate Father’s Day gift: World Cup tickets. Hayley Rodriguez, 21, from Los Angeles, is one such person. She and her siblings secretly worked together to score tickets for their father, a longtime soccer fan who had always dreamed of attending a World Cup game.
A Dream Come True
Rodriguez’s father had resigned himself to watching the World Cup on television, due to the high ticket prices. However, his children had other plans. They checked daily for affordable tickets and eventually found a game they could attend. The surprise was a huge success, with Rodriguez’s father calling everyone in his contact list to share the news.
Similar stories are emerging across the United States, with people sharing videos of their fathers’ reactions to receiving World Cup tickets on social media. The posts have garnered hundreds of thousands of views and drawn tearful responses from many online.
Diana Figueira, 25, from Houston, also surprised her father with World Cup tickets. She had been chasing tickets since December and eventually used her bonus to get tickets for the Portugal vs. Democratic Republic of the Congo game. Her father, who has rooted for Portugal his entire life, was overjoyed by the surprise.
Jesús Morales, 29, spent over $10,000 on tickets for the opening World Cup game to surprise his father, who had dreamed of attending the World Cup since he was 8 years old. Morales flew his dad from Chicago to Mexico City to watch the game, and they entered the stadium together, a moment Morales described as feeling like a scene from a movie.
For many immigrants in the United States, the World Cup has provided a rare opportunity to display national pride for both their past and present homes. Sasha Abdallah, 29, surprised her Egypt-born dad with tickets to the Egypt vs. Belgium game, and they watched the game together in Seattle.
Original reporting: NBC10 Boston — read the source article.
