Worchihan Zingkhai, Mo Faraj, and Vanessa Jimenez are soccer fans going to the FIFA World Cup.
Courtesy of Worchihan Zingkhai, Mo Faraj, and Vanessa Jimenez
Worchihan Zingkhai distinctly remembers when he first fell in love with soccer.It was the 1998 FIFA World Cup, and his whole community in Ukhrul, a small village in India near the Myanmar border, was gathered to watch Italy play Chile on a black-and-white TV.The game was a tense, back-and-forth that finished 2-2 thanks to a late penalty kick for the Italians."That was the beginning of my football journey," Zingkhai said in a recent conversation with Business Insider.When a plan to visit his in-laws in the US in June this year coincided with the World Cup, attending a game was a no-brainer. The challenge would be getting the tickets.Zingkhai, a 40-year-old teacher and content creator, said he had wanted to see England, Portugal, or Argentina play. When he tried to buy tickets in February, prices for these games were hundreds of dollars over his budget.A few months later, during last-minute ticket sales, and after spending three hours in a line, he got the cheapest ticket he could find in Atlanta, close to where he is staying: $140 to see the Czech Republic against South Africa.
