2006
The 2006 FIFA World Cup was held in Germany; I was then only 13 days old. I can’t say that I know anything about this World Cup. I know that Italy won (and the standard of its football team has since declined).
2010
The 2010 FIFA World Cup was held in South Africa; I was four. I had just started attending preschool, a small one near where we stayed. I probably knew what/where South Africa was at the time, though it would be a few more years before I understood what football, let alone the World Cup, was.
2014
During the 2014 World Cup I was a P2 student in St Nicks; I distinctly remember arguing with a classmate on the outcome of the infamous Germany-Brazil semifinal match (she thought the final score was 5-0. I knew she was wrong because I saw the score in the newspaper! Also I watched the game with my eyes, and was confused as to how she could even get such a thing wrong! I eventually let it slide, I didn’t have anything left to argue for.). In the past four years, I'd started primary school, started wearing glasses, and started playing in chess competitions.
2018
In 2018 I was a P6 student at RGPS, probably thinking more about PSLE rather than the World Cup. I did remember watching the final though, and that was when I first learnt French football player names (Mbappe, Pogba, Griezmann). I’d changed school once, glasses thrice, but I was still playing chess.
2022
The 2022 World Cup is the only one that fell during my secondary/JC days, in the school holidays no less. At the time I was working at DSO, I stayed up to watch the finals match. It was pretty insane. Between these two world cups was a time marked by great change: I stopped playing chess and started robotics instead; I started reading intentionally; I got into watching movies; my social circles changed and changed a little more.
2026
The 2026 World Cup is held across Canada-Mexico-USA. This is my first time watching from a foreign country, and I’ve spent the past year living in one. I realised that Americans really do not care much about football, but football still remains the biggest sport most other places in the world. America is weird in many ways. Yesterday a US-Iran deal was signed; it is so unfortunate that the US is such a large player in so many world events, for so many people within the US fail to understand how much their actions and decisions affect so many more around the world.
Every four years a World Cup comes around. The years between tournaments always feel long while they are happening; yet when the next World Cup arrives, they collapse into memories and a different version of who I was. Four years from now, there will be another World Cup, and another version of me looking back at this one.