At the 2026 World Cup, Elizabeth Pehota - who used to be a host and reporter for New England Revolution club - implemented the idea of running and sharing the hottest topics of the tournament every day. Her tool is just a mobile phone to make a series of videos called "World Cupdates".
This girl from Connecticut has a background in sports journalism and is currently working full-time in content creation. On her Instagram account specializing in running and lifestyle, she built a community of nearly 50,000 followers and gained access to new audiences. The video of her running with a Scottish fan attracted 177,000 views, another video just showing Scottish fans partying brought in 513,000 views.
This American woman is not alone in her journey to find community, connection, views and followers at this World Cup. Many other content creators also take advantage of the World Cup to elevate their personal brands. Their experiences are very diverse when they have to position themselves in a constantly changing and fiercely competitive environment.
At the 2026 World Cup, football, fashion, cuisine, fans and many different cultures have intertwined and been reflected through phone screens. Before the World Cup, Rollo Goldstaub, head of TikTok's global sports division, predicted that this tournament could be "the biggest content moment in all categories, not just sports".
The result is immediate with TikTok. As of June 30, the hashtag "FIFAWorldCup" has been used 9.4 million times; the total number of posts using the hashtag "WorldCup" increased by nearly 65% and the search volume for the keyword World Cup in the US increased by 320%.
Simone Scott started her career in journalism and television but switched direction 18 months ago. Setting up a studio at home, she started posting videos on TikTok and has now built a community of over 250,000 people on this platform. Her explanation videos focus on making sports more accessible to women. Thanks to that, she was selected by TikTok and FIFA for a program to give 30 content creators exclusive backstage access to the World Cup. The goal is to "bring fans unique, close perspectives". She enjoyed the privilege of working right at the edge and a video from the MetLife stadium explaining the situation at the end of the group stage reached nearly 1 million views on TikTok. Scott is also making a series of videos called "Soccer 101". She believes that social media is bringing great career opportunities for her and others.
Referee David Gerson, one of the creators selected by TikTok and FIFA, has also built a community of more than 380,000 fans. At the age of 51, Gerson calls himself a "grand-influencer" and has explained referee decisions throughout the tournament on his account Refs Need Love Too. His videos aim to "popularize" and humanize the image of the black-clad kings by offering a professional perspective on controversial situations.
However, behind million-view clips is another reality. As they shared, "this job can be really, really lonely", "very difficult when there is too much work to do", as well as not being able to enjoy the match. But fans always want to watch as much as possible, both on and off the field. Going along with that is more content, more influencers and greater pressure.
