A British Columbian shares his experience of being in Brazil for World Cup
Posted June 27, 2014 7:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BRAZIL (NEWS1130) – Thousands of Canadians are among those from around the globe in Brazil for World Cup Soccer right now.
That includes Nav Jhawer is from Victoria but he called News1130 from Rio de Janeiro. “Every game we go to we see hundreds of Canadians. Walking around at Fan Fest or on the beaches as well, we are seeing tons of people from home.”
He says the representation is not nearly as much as countries like Germany and Japan though, which have really stood out with their fan support. “Japan has the most amazing fan base I have ever seen. So loyal to their country and it was unbelievable to see their fans…like an army actually.”
Despite Canada not having a team in the World Cup, Jhawer has been carrying around a big flag to represent his home country. “I think I have a thousand pictures with my Canadian flag, people wanting to take pictures with us.”
He says there aren’t many people who speak English which has been one of the best experiences for him as no one is really catering to North Americans. “Portuguese and Spanish, by far if you don’t know those languages, you’ll struggle to get by. But that’s so exciting as well, learning little things.”
They’ve set up Fan Fest areas along all the beaches for locals to watch the games. “At the last Brazil game, there were 30,000 people in one city area watching the screen. I’ve never seen anything like that.”
His initial reaction is to compare it to the Vancouver Olympics but he says it’s just a whole other level.
Jhawer says there’s a lot of proof there that soccer is the world’s game “People are just so friendly and talking to each other and happy and celebrating; obviously giving other countries a hard time but always in a fun manner.”
The 38-year-old soccer fanatic says he hasn’t seen anything concerning no has he felt unsafe at any time.
