Venezuela Experienced a Different World Cup

Venezuela has never participated in a FIFA World Cup at the senior level. It is also a country where soccer is not the most dominant sport; in fact, despite the large number of small pitches found throughout the nation, basketball and baseball are probably one step above the beautiful game.

This has always been an ongoing debate among followers of each of these sports —one that intensified in 2026 after the World Baseball Classic title— but, if you ask me, it is a fairly unnecessary one.

And that was how a new World Cup began in my country, one in which nations such as Mexico, Spain, Qatar, India, England, the United States, Turkey, Italy, El Salvador, Ecuador, Haiti, Colombia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Argentina, the Czech Republic, Brazil, Canada, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Peru, France, Portugal, China, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran took part.

I hope I have not forgotten anyone, because the truth is that these words I write today are meant to thank every one of those people and countries that have stood by my people: with aid, a message, or even a thought.

Thank you for understanding that we needed to pause, but that soccer will always be our escape. Thank you for not leaving us alone, and thank you for continuing to be there.

And yes, we kept watching and enjoying soccer because... what better way to distract ourselves for a while than with what Luis Omar Tapia famously called “the most beautiful sport in the world”?