The World Cup at the Library of Congress
As the 2026 FIFA World Cup gets underway, billions of fans around the world are tuning in to watch the world’s most popular sporting event. The tournament, co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, likely will be the largest and most watched in history, with over 6.5 million fans filling stadiums across all three countries, according to the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport’s global governing body.
The 39-day tournament began on June 11 in Mexico City and concludes with the final in New Jersey on July 19. A record 48 countries are playing this year, a 50% increase from the 32 teams usually competing.
To mark the occasion, the Library’s Hispanic Reading Room is showcasing a colorful display, “For the Love of the Game,” that explains the evolution and appeal of a sport that has become one of the world’s most influential cultural forces. The display complements a new World Cup LibGuide developed by the Library’s Latin American, Caribbean and European collections specialists.
Among the 15 items featured in the display are a rare photo album documenting the inaugural 1930 World Cup in Uruguay, memorabilia from later tournaments, a book titled “1283” about Brazilian global soccer icon Pelé — three-time World Cup champion and scorer of 1,283 goals — and another showcasing the legacy of the late Argentinian midfielder, Diego Maradona.
“When the World Cup started in 1930, it was kind of an unproven concept, but today it is clear that when you host the World Cup, you become the center of attention in the world,” said reference librarian Henry Widener, lead curator of the display. “We put together a display that explores nine decades of World Cup history and soccer’s growing popularity in American culture.”
He’s not kidding about that homegrown popularity. A 2025 survey published by The Economist found that 10 percent of Americans say soccer is their favorite sport — narrowly edging out baseball for third behind football and basketball. The U.S. is also the biggest foreign market for the four largest European leagues, according to the same survey.
Other display highlights include a newspaper image depicting Uruguay’s shocking upset of Brazil, 2-1, in the decisive game of the 1950 World Cup. And of course there’s a Panini collectible sticker album, now a tradition, that was introduced in 1970.
As any fan will happily tell you, soccer is about far more than the 90-minute drama on the field. For nearly a century, the game has helped shape national identities, triggered fierce rivalries and helped people bond over shared memories.
Widener was born in Texas and is torn between Mexico and Brazil as his pick for winning this year’s World Cup.
“As someone who has traveled a lot and talked to people from different places … if I mention the World Cup, people talk about it like it’s the most important thing in the world to them,” he said. “It really does bring people together.”
While football-like games have been played for more than 2,000 years around the world, the modern version traces its roots to England in 1863. Once the rules were codified, the game spread across trade routes and, by the time of that initial 1930 World Cup, soccer had become an international phenomenon.
The United States first hosted the World Cup in 1994, introducing millions of Americans to soccer’s four-year craze and helping to fuel the sport’s amateur and professional growth.
As fans gather in stadiums and around their TVs and watch parties over the next month, Library visitors can discover how this simple game — with its prolonged shout of “Gooooooaaal!” — became a global language.
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