'It's all about connection' - Why Belgium superfan Adam El Manawy is driving across America for the World Cup

The plan, this time, is mostly the same. El Manawy is traveling from one place to another because of the World Cup. He is not alone in that feat. A few Argentina fans made headlines earlier this week for biking from Buenos Aires to Kansas City.

El Manawy’s journey, though, is a bit different. He has booked a one-way flight to America. He has money for gas and the basics. But he hasn’t booked a hotel, campsite, or Airbnb. He has tickets to two of Belgium’s group games, and every single stage after that (yes, he is making some optimistic assumptions about Belgium’s knockout journey here). He will arrive with two Belgium jerseys for himself, four to give away to some new friends - and that’s about it.

All he knows for sure is that he will leave Baltimore this week and needs to be in Seattle by June 15 for the Red Devils' opening group match against Egypt. Six days later, he will have to be in Los Angeles for a fixture with Iran. After that, he is at the mercy of the fixture list.

El Manawy has been kicking a football for as long as he can remember. He, like so many others, realized in his mid-teens that he was never quite going to make it in the professional game.

“I'm a big football fan, and I started playing at the age of four. I'm not very good at it, I'll be honest. I just love the game,” he said. So, the world took over. El Manawy got a job, went into the entertainment industry, and went about the day-to-day of, well, life. He moved around from place to place, spending time in America as well as his native Brussels. He coached kids here and there. But in 2014, it was put to him by a friend that he should attend the World Cup in Brazil.

That is when the obsession started in full. El Manawy had always been an ardent Belgium supporter. And when the world descended on Brazil in 2014, he only went deeper. Russia, in 2018, was a no-brainer.

He recalls long train rides, sometimes 24 hours or more, going from game to game. El Manawy painted his face, sat in the cheap seats, started the first chant, and finished the last. There he was, with a dirty face and beaming smile, never really shutting up.

“It was a great, great experience,” he said.

Qatar, though, was a different story. That time, El Manawy wanted to be a little more ambitious. So, he formulated a plan: get an old car, don’t bring any money for gas, don’t book hotels, and try to drive the 4,000-plus miles to Doha in time to catch Belgium’s opening game. He refused to take highways. This was a journey defined by day-to-day interactions with normal people.

“It’s all about connection, meeting people. On my way to Qatar, I didn't want to just promote the World Cup. That was not my goal,” he said.

Of course, it also came with some risks. The trek from Europe down through the Middle East means driving, at times, through countries actively experiencing conflict. Some places just aren’t safe. El Manawy saw it all as a calculated risk.

“Even when I went to countries like Iraq, for instance, I know I took a risk, but it was measured. I don't take stupid risks. Everywhere we go, people are nice, people are people at the end of the day,” he said.

That meant bunking in with random families in Turkey, or even staying at a hotel that would put most tourists off. The trip, in fact, ended in heartbreak. El Manawy was so consumed in his journey - driving it and documenting it - that he missed two group games. By the time he got to Doha, Belgium had been mathematically eliminated from the tournament. The journey, from a footballing perspective, was moot.

“That was bad,” he joked. “It was just a terrible World Cup for us.”

This time, then, El Manawy is determined to get things right. The project looks just as ambitious as before. At the time of publication, “The Beast” is still clearing customs in Baltimore. Once it is ready, El Manawy will drive to Seattle - a touch under 3,000 miles.

There are some similarities. Once again, El Manawy does not have plans for a place to stay. He doesn’t have a return flight, either. And even if he is bringing money for gas, there is no new shiny car to carry him all the way.

But perhaps more so than last time, soccer feels like a real hook. Before, he knew he was driving through countries that truly loved the sport. Professional leagues had existed there for centuries, as had a rich history of the game. All over Europe and the Middle East, he could find people who spoke the same language.

The United States, to be sure, has a history with soccer. But it is not the top sport here. El Manawy knows that.

“I want to see how it's going to be now in the U.S, really. And I understand that football is not the main sport, and that's going to be another element to my story, where I can actually kind of promote football and try to create games and everything with people who are not aware of the game itself and the sport,” he said.

He has, admittedly, quite an idealistic vision of what his journey might look like. El Manawy pictures walking into a diner, clad in a Belgium jersey, carrying a soccer ball, basically looking for interaction. He hopes someone will recognize the red of the kit, or at least want to kick a ball about. That, he claims, will be a conversation starter - and then he’s off to the races.

“I'm gonna enter the diner with my Belgium jersey with a football, and I'll just try to organize games, you know, in a very spontaneous way with just random people, so everywhere I'll stop. That would be my main goal,” he said.

There are, of course, some caveats here. America is a big country, and there are places with very few people - and perhaps not loads of soccer fans. But those parts of the trip tend to be El Manawy’s favorite. That’s when the real stories are told.

“I will be driving up north, and in the northern part of the country, don't have lots of host cities, especially in the middle, like Montana, and everything, but that’s going to be interesting,” El Manawy said.

He is also putting a certain amount of trust in the kindness of a day-to-day person in a country that is a little bit divided at the moment. But El Manawy has never had any problems before - and he doesn’t anticipate many now.

El Manawy will document his journey, too, covering his coast-to-coast travels on both Instagram and YouTube. He did the same in Qatar and hopes that these travels, too, will yield some compelling content.

There is also the question of money. Should Belgium stick around in the tournament, this thing could get expensive. El Manawy brushed off that question and pointed out that, as a last resort, he has some generous friends and family in the States, if needs be.

He hopes, this time, that Belgium will put up more of a fight. This is a changed Red Devils team, with some younger talent as well as old legends still sticking around. They are no longer World Cup favorites, but could play with a little more freedom. They will surely get out of a group that includes Egypt, Tunisia, and New Zealand.

After that, all bets are off. Incidentally, a matchup with the USMNT in the last 16 looks possible. Turning up at a restaurant, clad in Belgium red with his face painted, on the eve of that game could be something of a risk.

But El Manawy is counting on decent people, and perhaps a love of soccer that is yet to be fully uncovered. At the end of the day, he’s a man with a car, a few tickets, and a dream. Perhaps this is the right way to do the World Cup.

“It’s all about simplicity in the end,” he said.