Standing beside the pitch at the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final, surrounded by thousands of spectators and watching some of football's biggest names pass just metres away, I found myself thinking about Mirpur.
That was where I grew up, thousands of kilometres away in Dhaka. As a boy, the FIFA World Cup was something I watched from afar, never imagining that one day I would be inside the stadium for a final, not merely as a spectator, but as part of the event itself.
For a Bangladeshi immigrant who has been living in New York for nearly three years, it was difficult to believe that the moment was real.
When I first learned that the 2026 World Cup would be hosted in the United States, Canada and Mexico, I began dreaming about experiencing it in person. But buying a ticket to the final seemed far beyond anything I could realistically imagine.
Then came the FIFA Volunteer Programme.
I applied in August 2025, joining an enormous pool of applicants hoping to become part of the world's biggest football tournament. The process took months. After the online application and assessment, I received an invitation in November to attend the volunteer tryouts and interview.
Then came the waiting.
In March 2026, an email from FIFA finally arrived: I had been selected as a Ceremonies Volunteer.
That alone felt extraordinary. I completed the background check, attended in-person training and began preparing for the tournament. But even then, I had no idea where I would eventually be assigned.
Then came another surprise.
My shift allocation was for the FIFA World Cup Final.
Of all the places I could have been sent, I was going to be there for the biggest match in world football.
By May, I had collected my official FIFA volunteer uniform. When the tournament began in June, the months of applications, interviews, assessments and training suddenly felt worthwhile.
Nothing, however, prepared me for the experience of the final itself.
As a Ceremonies Volunteer, I worked with the production team, helping performers, entertainment groups and crew members navigate the stadium. That meant moving through areas ordinary spectators rarely see -- the tunnels, operational zones and, most memorably, the side of the field itself.
At moments, the job felt almost surreal.
I watched Shakira rehearse just metres away. I saw Speed during rehearsals. At one point, I remember almost pinching myself and thinking: Is this really happening to me?
Then came the football legends.
Inside the stadium and around the players' tunnel, I found myself close to names I had known for years from television: Carles Puyol, David Villa, Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez.
For someone who grew up watching world football from Bangladesh, seeing them standing only a short distance away was difficult to process.
But the greatest privilege was being able to watch the final itself from inside the stadium, standing near the field and absorbing an atmosphere that television can never fully capture.
The roar of the crowd feels different when it travels through the stadium and through your body. So does the tension before a decisive moment. On television, the World Cup is a spectacle. Inside the stadium, it feels almost physical.
And somewhere amid all that noise, I kept returning to the same thought: a boy who grew up in Mirpur was standing at a FIFA World Cup Final.
That is what made the experience mean more to me than simply being close to celebrities or football stars. Immigration can take you far from the places and people that shaped you, but sometimes it also places you somewhere your younger self could never have imagined.
I am grateful to FIFA for trusting me with a role that allowed me to experience the tournament from the inside. Being part of the ceremonies team taught me how much work happens behind the spectacle -- the rehearsals, coordination and countless people working quietly to make a global event appear seamless.
But what I will remember most is the feeling.
Years from now, when the uniforms have been packed away and the photographs have become old, I know exactly how I will tell this story.
I will tell my grandchildren that I once grew up in Mirpur, Dhaka, dreaming about the World Cup from thousands of kilometres away.
And that one day, somehow, I found myself standing beside the pitch at the World Cup Final, watching that childhood dream unfold right in front of me.
