- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,194,892
- Reaction score
- 59
You must be registered for see images attach
As I walked around Gillette Stadium, passing countless men in German national team jerseys on the concourse, I wondered what everyone was wondering:
Which one is Freddy?
Tweeting Germany superfan Freddy has managed to make himself famous and largely anonymous. He was at Gillette Stadium for Germany-Paraguay, but nobody knows that he looks like.Matt Vautour / MassLive.com
Freddy is a German fan, who is in North America for the World Cup. For the last three weeks, he’s been driving around the United States, experiencing America and posting to Twitter (@FreddyLA7). On Monday he was in Foxborough on day 25 of his journey.
On June 4 he posted a picture from a plane taking off in Germany headed for Atlanta via Dublin and New York and has been regularly tweeting ever since.
He’s hardly the only one. There have been other tourists from around the globe eating BBQ and American fast food, visiting Walmart and taking pictures of landmarks and sharing their American experience 280 characters at a time.
But it was Freddy who found fame as he drove around the country. Beginning with a multi-day jaunt from Atlanta to Houston through Louisiana, he began showing us America through the filter of fresh eyes.
Tweeting Germany superfan Freddy has managed to make himself famous and largely anonymous. He was at Gillette Stadium for Germany-Paraguay, but nobody knows that he looks like.Matt Vautour / MassLive.com
Freddy liked us — our food, the scenery and the people. It was refreshing and a little uplifting and it challenged the enduring stereotype that Europeans think Americans are loud and dumb.
We’re much more snobby about our own institutions than Freddy has been. He loved Taco Bell, Bass Pro, Buffalo Wild Wings, Bucc-ees and every fast food burger joint along the way.
Unlike so many prolific posters, who want to gain some amount of internet fame, Freddy has kept himself largely anonymous.
What’s his last name? He’s never said.
What does he look like? He superimposes Cristiano Ronaldo’s head onto every picture of himself that he posted. He’s traveling with a friend/friends at different points of the journey and we know even less about them.
The intentional anonymity in a world of attention seekers has created questions about his authenticity:
Why does a German tweet only in English? How does he know American idioms like “crushing it” and “small town America?” Still, the pictures and videos are real - somebody is taking them and posting them. But if he’s faking any or all of this, he’s incredibly good at it and if it’s a scam, or some kind of prank, it’s harmless. It’s not like he’s asking for money.
A German newspaper/website did a story about Freddy, who is from Hamburg. It adds a few details, but leaves many stones unturned about this man of mystery.
Translated into English it says: Freddy is “a student from the Bergedorf district of Hamburg. He studies media management in his hometown. He doesn’t want to reveal his exact age. He says he’s in his 20’s.”
Tweeting Germany superfan Freddy has managed to make himself famous and largely anonymous. He was at Gillette Stadium for Germany-Paraguay, but nobody knows that he looks like.Matt Vautour / MassLive.com
Despite that anonymity or maybe because of it, people have been drawn to him. Country singer Ella Langley invited him to a show. J.J. Watt hooked him up with a hotel room and some gifts in Houston and Gordon Ramsey hooked him up in Boston. How’d they connect with him? Hard to say.
As his fame grew, everybody wanted to give him something — behind-the-scenes tours, sports jerseys, food etc. He unexpectedly became an anonymous influencer.
NASA even gave him a tour of its Houston facility and astronaut Anne McClain tweeted about meeting him:
“One of the best parts of this job is sharing the wonder of exploration. It was an honor to host @FreddyLA7 and friends at @NASAJohnson, thank you for your curiosity and excitement! (Confirmed: real people, on an epic road trip!)."
That epic trip took him to New Orleans, Niagara Falls, Amish Country and the top of Mount Washington. And after hitting two group stage matches for both Germany and Portugal, with his hero Cristiano Ronaldo, he eventually arrived in Boston to see his team face Paraguay.
Tweeting Germany superfan Freddy has managed to make himself famous and largely anonymous. He was at Gillette Stadium for Germany-Paraguay, but nobody knows that he looks like.Matt Vautour / MassLive.com
I hadn’t planned to try to meet him.
How was I going to find anyone in a stadium filled with 67,000 if I don’t know what they look like?
But then he posted a video from a vantage directly above where I was sitting. So I scrolled through his recent posts and found that he’s been wearing white Nikes with a blue swoosh most of the time. I couldn’t make out the make and model of his silent traveling companion’s footwear, but they have had a distinctive enough pattern that I could use them to hunt for two similar pairs.
So I went upstairs and started looking at shoes around Gillette Stadium’s third-level bar, while trying not to look like a weird guy staring at strangers’ feet.
Two guys standing about eight feet from each other were both wearing Nikes that looked like the Air Freddys that I’d seen on social media. So I stood between them, a few feet back and first said:
“Hey Freddy!”
and then just:
“Freddy!” a little louder.
Neither reacted. Not Freddy.
I stayed up there, keeping one eye on the game and one on the sneakers of anyone passing by, through the first hydration break. I went to the press box when my cell battery hit red.
I didn’t meet Freddy, but I kept thinking about his unique place in the world. America didn’t fall in love with Freddy because we loved him. How could we? We know almost nothing about him.
We loved him because he loved us. The simple things. Things we took for granted.
If fans had come to the United States for the World Cup and hated it, we probably would have reacted with defiance and hostility.
But the fact that so many fans have, at least publicly, loved their American experience, has exposed a vulnerability in our collective personality. We really do want everyone to like us. It feels good.
It’s like a stranger complimenting your favorite T-shirt magnified by a thousand. We’re suddenly proud of Waffle House and Walmart and ranch dressing. After seeing some of Freddy’s pictures, I have an urge to drive around the United States and see all the things I’ve missed.
But in this politically divided country, a soccer tournament has helped bring out the best in all of us. Freddy has simply been there to relay how our hospitality is manifesting itself.
When Paraguay won on penalty kicks to advance, I figured Freddy’s American adventure, like Germany’s World Cup, was over. But as it turns out, like most people, he thought Germany would survive longer than they did.
Shortly after the game, he tweeted:
“Our flight back home is on July 23rd lol. We need a lot of good suggestions for what to do in the coming weeks.”
By late Monday night he already had more than 6,000 suggestions. America is in no hurry to send him home.
More World Cup 2026 Coverage
- World Cup 2026: U.S. set for Round of 32 match with Bosnia-Herzegovina
- How to watch France vs. Sweden World Cup match tonight for free
- Paraguay and Germany revealed what American soccer is still chasing
- World Cup: Orlando Gill saves Paraguay in penalties to upset Germany
Read the original article on MassLive. Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Continue reading...
