When FIFA announced last week that Kansas City would be a host city for the 2026 World Cup, the city erupted in celebration — the Power & Light District was filled with cheers and chants as Mayor Quinton Lucas said, "We will be the best damn World Cup host in the history of the world.”
Immediately after the announcement, The Chronicle reached out to a few Jewish Kansas Citians closely involved with the city’s soccer scene.
Gadi Kinda, an attacking midfielder for Sporting Kansas City, is one of the city’s premier athletes. Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, he played for Israeli teams S.C. Ashdod and Beitar Jerusalem Football Club before coming to play for Sporting KC, for which he has played 44 games and scored 11 goals in regular seasons since 2020 as of publication.
“I think it’s a welcome move that such a huge tournament is coming to Kansas City,” Kinda said in Hebrew. “As a player here, I was very excited to hear that. I’m happy for the club and for the city, and I’m sure it’s going to be a big celebration… The city really loves soccer.”
Kinda also plays for Israel’s national soccer team, which has not qualified for the World Cup since 1970. He is optimistic about the team improving and believes it will make it to a big tournament in the future.
“There is a young, strong and good generation [on the team], and I’m sure that in the coming years we will make it,” he said.
Sasha Victorine, originally from California, played soccer professionally for the Los Angeles Galaxy, Kansas City Wizards and Chivas USA. Throughout his career, he scored over 30 goals and played more than 215 games. He also played on the U.S. soccer team in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
“Without a doubt, the most exciting part of the World Cup coming to Kansas City for me is the exposure kids and families will have with this event and the game of soccer,” Victorine said. “I was fortunate as a kid to hold the American flag on the field at Stanford Stadium during a 1994 World Cup game. To be a part of that experience was a massive introduction to the world's game on a stage way bigger than anything in the U.S. at the time. Being able to share this World Cup moment with my kids and other families doing the same is just a continued evolution and growth of the game of soccer in the U.S.”
“Where the 1994 World Cup in the U.S. was a spark to the growth of soccer here, this will be a springboard to soccer’s expansion in the U.S. …and to an eventual World Cup trophy for the U.S.,” he said.
While growing up in California, Victorine never thought of the Midwest as a soccer power. He said the World Cup will help showcase Kansas City and its values to the world, and reciprocally, the World Cup will showcase new experiences and cultures to Kansas City.
“It will chip away at the feeling that Kansas City is a flyover city good for just barbecue and football,” he said. “Kansas City will be an international dwelling welcoming millions of soccer fans around the world, but even better, Kansas City will get to experience the culture and passion of these countries here in our home.”
Victorine is currently the Chief Growth Officer for the Kansas City-based sports software company FanThreeSixty. Though the effects of the World Cup on FanThreeSixty are yet to be seen, he said that the city’s sports and entertainment businesses do great things that will only be reinforced by the World Cup.
Carrie Fry Robinson, a native of Leawood, Kansas, and past soccer player for Shawnee Mission East High School and Indiana University, is the founder of Finesse Soccer, a female-led soccer training organization that has taught over 1,000 girls of all ages.
“[Kansas City] has the fans and the passion, and being able to bring one of the biggest soccer stages in the world to our city is really exciting,” Robinson said. “Kansas City has been on the proverbial soccer map for a while now; it has come a long way since I was a player here in the ’90s… The electrifying atmosphere of a soccer match can turn a passive fan into a superfan in less than 90 minutes.”
Robinson looks forward to further tying in the World Cup to Finesse Soccer’s camps. Campers are assigned to teams representing countries in the World Cup cycles, which Robinson says opens the doors to conversations about other cultures.
“It's exciting because every cycle, we get to add new flags and teams, like South Africa and Zambia,” she said. “The campers get to learn about that country and their key players, fun facts about their team and more.”
Robinson also looks forward to the World Cup in Kansas City being a “touchpoint to the tournament” that will offer “fun camper moments as we get to discuss the tournament matches and results at camp.”
For 2026, Kansas City will be one of 16 World Cup host cities throughout Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. The bid process for securing hosting privilege began in 2017, and Kansas City had the leverage of being the self-proclaimed “Soccer Capital of America” and the famous 76,000-seat Arrowhead Stadium, among many other assets. Kansas City was selected over other markets including Denver and Nashville, for example.
Before the 2026 World Cup, this year’s World Cup will take place in Qatar, a small country on the Arabian Peninsula with a population of about 2.8 million in 2020 (for comparison, the state of Kansas had a population of about 2.5 million the same year).
Like Israel, the United States has not seen much World Cup success; the United States’ best showing was reaching the semifinals in 1930. The United States has qualified for this year’s World Cup in Qatar and will first play in Group B against Wales, England and Iran in late November.
According to FIFA, the last World Cup, held in Russia in 2018, was watched in 210 territories by more than 3.5 billion people — almost half the world’s population — and Reuters reported that FIFA president Gianni Infantino said this year’s World Cup in Qatar is expected to have over 5 billion viewers. If the trend continues, billions of people across the world will watch a soccer game at Arrowhead Stadium — a stadium used to the other kind of football.
Gadi Kinda’s quotes were translated from Hebrew by Sivan Cohen, Omaha Community Shlicha.
