Costa Rica fan scores dream trip to showpiece in random contest

Gomez twice declined calls taking it to be prank

Martin Gomez twice hung up his phone thinking he was part of a prank or scam. The third time he took the call, and learnt he’d won an all-expense paid trip to the World Cup, Gomez cried tears of joy.

The Costa Rican didn’t even know he was part of the contest to send a fan to Russia to follow the national team. Gomez was picked at random by the state-owned telephone provider just for being a customer who always pays his monthly bills on time.

During the opening ceremony of his first World Cup, he proudly waved the whiteand red-striped Costa Rican flag at the largest square in Europe, located in the city of Samara, nearly 12,000 km from the lush hills of sugarcane plantations in his native town of Turrialba.

“When I sing the national anthem and wave the flag, the tears of joy will fall again,” Gomez said. “And I’m about to fulfil that dream.”

The 52-year-old electrician and 35 other Ticos won the trip to the World Cup and will be among the thousands of fans at the Samara Arena today when Costa Rica face Serbia. The winners will follow the team to St. Petersburg, where Costa Rica will play Brazil on June 22. Then the group will move to Nizhny Novgorod, where Costa Rica will close the group stage against Switzerland on June 27.

Inspired display

Costa Rica beat all predictions and reached the quarter-finals in Brazil 2014. Along the way, they defeated England, Italy and Uruguay in the group stage, and were only eliminated after a loss to the Netherlands on a penalty shoot-out.

The bar is high, but the Ticos, and their loyal fans, are hoping to repeat the success of the last World Cup. “We’re here to make history. We hope it can happen again,” Gomez said.