COPA90’s Search for the Next Great Football Storytellers | OneFootball

COPA90 is launching a creator-driven initiative that elevates five emerging storytellers to redefine how the 2026 World Cup and North American soccer culture will be documented and experienced.

As North America prepares for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, COPA90 is unveiling “The Best Job in the World,” a creator-led initiative aimed at reimagining how soccer stories are found, shaped, and shared. From more than 5,000 applicants across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, five emerging creators were selected for their ability to capture the sport where it truly lives — in community spaces, pickup fields, supporter cultures, and the everyday rituals that rarely make the broadcast feed.

The project reflects COPA90’s vision that the heartbeat of soccer content now comes from diverse, ground-level storytellers rather than legacy media outlets.

Each finalist approaches the game from a distinct angle: Juan Henao explores the immigrant football identities of Queens and Miami; Cheyenne Foster captures the energy of New England’s grassroots scene; Pedro González Moctezuma takes a cross-border look at Mexico City and Los Angeles’ underground football cultures; Natalie “BadBTeenie” Williams dives into alternative supporter groups in the United States; and Jai Mohit offers a Toronto-based series where food becomes the entry point to understanding soccer communities.

With mentorship from COPA90’s creative team, pilot episodes from each finalist will debut in late 2025, and one creator will eventually take on a prominent storytelling role as the World Cup draws near. The initiative continues COPA90’s long-standing commitment to spotlighting fan-driven narratives and the human connections that make global football culture so rich.

Urban Pitch spoke with Shawn Francis, COPA90’s Executive Creative Director for North America, along with finalists González Moctezuma and Mohit, to understand how this shift is reshaping World Cup coverage — and why elevating new voices has become essential.

A Content Creator-Led World Cup

For Francis, the 2026 tournament won’t be defined only by goals, highlights, or what happens in the stadiums. Instead, he sees it becoming the most creator-driven World Cup ever, with millions of fans following the event through TikTok explainers, YouTube mini-docs, Instagram reels, and first-person storytelling. Younger audiences, he argues, increasingly look to creators rather than traditional broadcasters to make sense of the moment.

Remaining relevant in that landscape requires originality. Simply reposting headlines or copying viral formats won’t hold attention. Fans respond to creators who bring new angles, fresh reporting, or personal perspectives that break away from what everyone else is saying.

“There’s a point where a creator becomes something bigger,” Francis said. “When someone hits millions of followers, partners with major brands, or crosses over into mainstream entertainment, they move beyond that original label. But the creator world works like a ladder. The more established names climb higher, and new voices come up right behind them. It’s like music: once a band gets too polished, people start craving something raw again. Audiences do the same with creators, shifting toward the up-and-coming storytellers who feel more real.”

COPA90 is trying to harness that natural cycle. With the World Cup returning to North America, the company wants creators capable of digging into overlooked communities, offering context that hasn’t been told before, and bringing audiences into spaces mainstream media often ignores. For COPA90, this is the moment to recapture the soul of the sport, and to let new storytellers define what that looks like.

Recapturing the Beautiful Game

One of those new voices is Pedro González Moctezuma, whose upcoming docu-series explores the creative and cultural undercurrents of grassroots football in Mexico City and Los Angeles. His project steps into spaces that rarely get documented: the underground world of homemade bootleg kits, the art of repairing worn-down balls, and the chaotic, electric universe of talacha: competitive amateur tournaments where top players get paid to secure bragging rights for their teams.

Moctezuma says underground football reveals how deeply creativity is woven into everyday life. Without major brands dictating aesthetics or structure, players and communities build their own identity — choosing how they dress, how they organize, and how they express themselves through the game. For him, this is football at its purest form. Each neighborhood, each group, each player brings their own style, and those differences create a culture that feels completely authentic.

He recalls one talacha moment that perfectly captured the world he’s documenting.

“After a talacha match, I was talking with a friend who plays in those tournaments,” Moctezuma said. “The team owner walked up with a supermarket bag full of cash, pulled out a handful, and handed it to him like, ‘Good job, man.’ I couldn’t believe it. I asked if I could take a picture. He agreed, just not with him in it. so I laid the cash on the bench and snapped it. Scenes like that happen all the time. The crowds, the uniforms, the way tournaments are run, it’s unreal. And in Mexico, every town has football and talacha. It’s a massive part of the culture that never shows up in big media.”

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Pedro Gonmoc (@gonmoc)

Moctezuma’s work taps into a growing interest in underground football: DIY kits, retro jerseys, repaired match balls, and semi-pro tournaments with huge local followings. These subcultures, he argues, aren’t peripheral — they’re living proof of how football thrives outside the spotlight.

Working with COPA90 has strengthened that vision. Their focus on stories beyond the 90 minutes — on the people, textures, and cultural impact of the game — aligns perfectly with his approach. It’s the kind of storytelling that deepens fans’ understanding of football and adds layers that traditional coverage often overlooks.

Football Through Food

Another finalist, Toronto creator Jai Mohit, is approaching football culture from a completely different angle: through food. His sports-food-travel series connects football communities across Toronto by tracing the dishes that define their heritage. Fans, activists, and former players all share their stories through recipes and meals linked to their football memories.

“For me, it brings together my two biggest passions — food and football,” Mohit said. “Both are amazing ways to understand people. You learn who someone is through the teams they love and the dishes they grew up with. Sharing a meal lets you connect with someone in a way nothing else can.”

He notes that in North America, food and sports are often tied to tailgating. His series aims for something deeper.

“We told our guests that it wasn’t about what you eat before or after a match,” Mohit explained. “It’s about the meal that instantly brings football to mind — the one that reminds you of watching games with your family or thinking about your team. Food and football belong together, and that connection goes way beyond game day.”

Through Mohit’s lens, football becomes an entry point to cultural memory, identity, and belonging, a theme that resonates strongly with COPA90’s mission.

A New Era of World Cup Storytelling

The 2026 World Cup is poised to be the most creator-led tournament in history. Instead of a single narrative, fans will experience dozens of perspectives shaped by culture, community, and lived experience. That’s precisely what COPA90 is betting on: that the best way to understand this World Cup is through the voices that reflect its diversity.

The five creators are now developing and filming their pilot episodes under COPA90’s editorial mentorship. “The Best Job in the World” series will debut on COPA90 channels beginning in December 2025. Then, in February 2026, one creator will be selected to become a key voice for COPA90 in the lead-up to, and throughout, the 2026 FIFA World Cup, helping define how the tournament is experienced by a new generation of fans.