Over three-plus years and 11 long-term adventures, San Diego resident Joe Connor traveled the planet looking for to observe organized soccer in each nation that he figured would find yourself qualifying for the .
He fell only one brief. (It’s not arduous to determine which one.)
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His mission by no means would have occurred, although, if not for a blood clot.
The 54-year-old has attended a whole lot of occasions that includes dozens of various sports activities throughout six continents. He has seen baseball and basketball, horse racing and cricket, golf and Gaelic soccer, even ice fishing.
In 2018-19 alone, over 675 consecutive days, he criss-crossed the U.S. and to attend a sport, match, race, duel, meet or event.
He dubs himself, “The GOAT of Sports activities Journey.”
Connor’s old flame was baseball, adopted by school soccer and basketball. Boyhood was additionally consumed by hockey, which he performed in Connecticut and watched along with his father, a Hartford Whalers season ticket holder for a dozen years. Soccer was barely on his radar.
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The second Joe Connor fell in love with soccer
Then in late 2022, as he ready to go to for rugby and different sports activities, his heart specialist grounded him. He had developed a clot in his left leg.
“It is the vacations, I am at residence and I am considering, ‘God, I used to be going to be on this trip,’” he advised Yahoo Sports activities final week. “I used to be sort of bummed out and I am like, ‘Oh, the World Cup is on.’ I had by no means watched soccer on TV — ever. I performed it for 2 years in highschool and hated it. It was lots of operating and I wasn’t superb at it.”
Laid up at residence, Conner gave soccer one other probability.
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“The nationalism and the depth of the video games, I used to be hooked, man,” he mentioned. “It wasn’t simply the U.S. video games; it was all the things about it.”
He started getting away from bed earlier than dawn to observe the event play out in , day after day for greater than 4 weeks.
Three months later, his physician cleared him to take a sightseeing journey to his final continent, Antarctica.
“That is once I mentioned to myself, ‘I’ll [also] go to and and Chile and watch some soccer,” Connor mentioned.
Thus started his quest to see the world’s sport everywhere in the world earlier than it descended in its fantastical type throughout the U.S., and Canada this summer time.
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By the point he completed final month, Connor says he witnessed matches in 144 international locations and territories.
“Soccer handed hockey as my fourth favourite sport,” he declared.
San Diego resident Joe Connor made it his mission to observe soccer in each nation that certified to the 2026 World Cup.
(Photographs courtesy Joe Connor, illustration by Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports activities)Connor’s world quest to expertise soccer tradition
Mockingly, he noticed solely three of the groups that can play within the World Cup this summer time: on the 2025 Central Asian Soccer Affiliation Nations Cup in Tajikistan; Turkey in a World Cup qualifier vs. visiting Romania; and in a house qualifier vs. Lesotho.
Not surprisingly, Iran was the one World Cup-bound nation he wasn’t capable of enter. A number of makes an attempt to safe a visa failed, and when he was lastly accepted final June, battle broke out.
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Within the international locations and territories he did go to, he noticed first-division professional matches, together with vs. ; beginner video games; ladies’s matches; youth tournaments; and group competitions, such because the Yamle Yamle Cup in Zanzibar, a Tanzanian archipelago.
“It was a quarterfinal and the shootout went 9 rounds,” he mentioned of his island go to. “Followers stormed the pitch. Everyone seems to be on the pitch. I’m occurring the pitch.”
In , which has certified for its first World Cup, he noticed a league match, plus youth and over-35 video games. In , one other World Cup first-timer, he watched the Concacaf under-20 males’s event.
An Australian journey this previous March facilitated an opportunity to see North Korea face within the Ladies’s Asian Cup.
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In , he obtained into the Cali Clásico between América and Deportivo. Unversed within the rivalry, he occurred to wander into América’s supporters’ part. Happily, he was sporting a crimson shirt, the membership’s major shade.
“I suppose I used to be a good-luck allure,” he mentioned, “so that they lifted me up and gave me noogies.”
He has seen soccer in Guinea-Bissau and Gibraltar, Israel and Iraq, Botswana and Belarus, Luxembourg and Libya.
Earlier than the World Cup got here to North America, Joe Connor went on the lookout for soccer all over the place else. (Photograph courtesy Joe Connor)
He has even seen soccer in locations ruled by non-FIFA member associations: Isle of Man within the Irish Sea, Guernsey within the Channel Islands and Mo’orea in French Polynesia, amongst others.
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There have been harrowing moments, too.
In , a driver threatened to beat him up if he didn’t pay for fuel. Locals defended him earlier than accommodating the combative driver.
In Cairo for the derby between Zamalek and Al-Ahly, he handed by way of three safety checkpoints with out incident however was stopped at a fourth as a result of his identify was not on an official record. Ultimately, he was let into the stadium.
Connor resides a soccer fanatic’s dream, one which didn’t begin till after he turned 50.
“I would gone to soccer matches within the U.S., and I would seen MLS matches, but it surely was extra like I used to be in a metropolis and there was one thing to do,” he mentioned. “It wasn’t like I used to be a hardcore soccer fan.”
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Watching the 2022 World Cup — from residence, of all locations — modified that.
The fact of long-term sports activities journey
So how did he afford not simply the soccer adventures however the numerous sports activities journeys over time?
In any case, it ain’t low-cost to go to each nation on Earth besides six — Iran, North Korea, Ukraine, Niger, Chad and Sudan — in addition to locations which can be barely on a map, corresponding to Bougainville, which is looking for independence from Papua New Guinea.
A former freelance sports activities author, Connor turned a profession coach, serving to individuals adapt to the altering work atmosphere. Supplemental earnings comes from investments and rental properties.
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“I’m a single man with no youngsters, no youngsters,” he defined. “I’m not poor, however I am not wealthy. I’m not staying on the Ritz-Carlton. I keep at native inns, native Airbnbs, as a result of, until the nation shouldn’t be protected to stroll round, I wish to discover by foot. I wish to embed myself in the neighborhood.”
He scores tickets by way of commonplace means, but additionally on the road, by way of native contacts and from groups.
Except for the joys of watching sports activities, why does he do it?
“My goal is to encourage, encourage and educate individuals concerning the world by way of my travels,” mentioned Connor, who shares pictures and movies on his and web page. “Even when I impressed three individuals or 4 individuals, it is higher than nothing. There are nonetheless lots of scary locations — do not get me fallacious — however the world’s not as loopy as our media makes it out to be. There may be a lot to see and expertise.”
‘Don’t rely the times; make the times rely’
Two occasions helped push him towards a lifetime of sports activities journey.
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His father died younger, at 57. Joe Connor III had launched his son to sports activities, with journeys to Whalers and Boston Crimson Sox video games, amongst different occasions. Attending sports activities was a option to honor his father.
His mantra is a Mohammed Ali quote: “Don’t rely the times; make the times rely.”
The COVID pandemic additionally motivated him.
“I had carried out this massive highway journey earlier than COVID, the place I would seen all these sporting occasions within the U.S. and Canada,” he mentioned. “However once I obtained again, I assumed, ‘I wish to meet somebody. I am not getting youthful.’ After which COVID occurred. I misplaced members of the family and buddies. It was a complete recalculation. I noticed that with the isolation that, no, I am not prepared for a relationship. I missed the journey.”
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With the World Cup on the horizon, soccer turned the car for brand spanking new adventures.
“There is a curiosity whenever you journey,” he mentioned. “I’ve at all times had the journey bug and the sports activities journey bug. What was totally different was this was soccer and getting hooked watching the video games.”
One in every of his most vivid reminiscences was visiting Djibouti, in East Africa.
“Youngsters are naked ft taking part in in the midst of the day everywhere in the streets on cracked pavement with stray canine operating round,” he mentioned. “I’ve by no means seen so many youngsters. Djibouti might by no means make the World Cup, however they make the World Cup of ardour for the sport. I used to be blown away. It’s not simply concerning the matches; it’s the eagerness.”
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A shopper of the 4 longtime U.S. leagues and NCAA sports activities, he quickly got here to understand soccer fandom is like nothing else.
“America’s an ideal sports activities tradition and followers are enthusiastic about their groups,” he mentioned, “however truthfully, it will probably’t evaluate to the eagerness I’ve seen in these different international locations.”
Connor has by no means attended a U.S. nationwide workforce match, males’s or ladies’s. And till ticket costs fall, he gained’t contemplate shopping for World Cup tickets.
Then once more, the event shouldn’t be going down overseas — the place he found soccer’s coronary heart and soul.
Reflecting on greater than three years of soccer expeditions, Connor says, “I am nonetheless processing all the things. What stands out is, holy s***, I did all that.”