He’s chugging his way through the competition.
A soccer superfan in London is having a ball drinking beer during the FIFA World Cup.
Gus Hully collected beers from the 48 countries competing — and cracks one open each time a team loses — so will either be celebrating or drowning his sorrows on Saturday night when his home country of England plays Norway.
“I’ll be drinking each beer once that team has been eliminated from the competition, basically as a toast to their participation and failure at winning the tournament,” Hully told BBC Sport of his ale and lager haul, which set him back $335.
Hully started sourcing the bottles and cans in 2025, and quickly came to the sobering realization that some would be challenging to find.
“Iraq was a headache to figure out, but I ended up spending £30 to buy a bottle off a guy in Poland who went to Iraq a few years ago and brought a bottle back as a souvenir,” he told the outlet.
“I had to trade some rare English beers with a bloke from Finland for a can of Fizzin from Qatar, and I traded a Panamanian beer with another collector for a bottle of Moussy from Saudi Arabia,”
He also found a loophole for places that are not known for alcohol consumption.
“For countries where people don’t drink, like Qatar and Saudi Arabia, I got non-alcoholic malt beverages which are as close to beer as you can get over there considering they’re brewed with barley malt,” he explained.
Hully may already be up for the beer collecting challenge for the next World Cup in 2028.
“That’s only 24 teams so it’s much easier to collect. Well, unless Andorra or San Marino qualify, then I wouldn’t mind a couple of jaunts to countries I’ve never visited before.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
