My most joyous moment
Our staff on the ground make their choice
Ben Rumsby
The moment I arrived at the opening game to be greeted by a kaleidoscope of colour and noise from fans from around the world who had made the pilgrimage to the Luzhniki Stadium. There was singing, dancing, laughter – a spontaneous outbreak of joy that sport’s greatest carnival was about to begin. It was a kind of World Cup Utopia.
Robert Mendick
Walking into the Fan Fest park in Volgograd two days before England’s opening game against Tunisia and stumbling across the first England supporters to reach the former Stalingrad. It may have been the drink, but their sheer delight at having simply made it was infectious. One of them nicknamed “Slim” (he was not) could not care if England won or lost. He just wanted to experience the World Cup and his expectation was low to zero.
James Ducker
Uruguayan fans are a larger than life bunch. One supporter, the wrong side of 60, could not contain his excitement as our plane landed in Rostov-on-Don ahead of the country’s match against Saudi Arabia. He threw
off his seat belt, jumped up, and whipped his fellow fans into a singing frenzy as he revelled in the role of conductor, arms waving manically. The noise was deafening, the mood buoyant and it was a good few minutes before an air hostess kindly asked him to desist and return to his seat. He dropped to one knee and begged forgiveness. Even the air hostess could not keep up her pretence of annoyance.
Paul Hayward
In a land of insurmountable language barriers, a single word can build a bridge. For me, it came when my driver in Volgograd turned out to be Armenian, and I said: “Mkhitaryan.” This sustained us for 30 minutes. Me:
“Mkhitaryan.” Nod. Him: “Mkhitaryan.” Nod. Subsequently, people have said the conversation could have been widened to the Kardashians, but alas it went no further than the Arsenal midfielder. At the airport, he reached under his seat and gave me an orange for the flight. That’s how you make friends.
Julian Simmonds
Tunisians flew red-and-white flags from their shoulders and wore fezes on their heads – just like that.
Even climbing the 200 steps up the hill of Mamayev Kurgan to the immense statue of The
Motherland Calls, commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad, they continued in high spirits. They carried their ebullience into the stadium, even to Harry (or “Gary” as he is known here ) Kane’s winning goal (left).
Jeremy Wilson
The sheer number of Peruvian fans in Russia is well known but the imbalance was magnified against France amid only scarce pockets in Ekaterinburg cheering on Didier Deschamps’s team. One French group called over some of the more vocal Peruvians outside the stadium and promptly stripped off their France tops to unveil the Peru replica shirts that they had bought. The two sets of fans could not understand a word the other were saying but were soon all dancing up and down together. The France team had the edge on the pitch but their fans gracefully knew their limitations off it.