‘The Perfect Job’: Two Fans Paid to Watch All The FIFA World Cup Games
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Fox are paying a Liverpool fan and an influencer to take part in a Truman Show-style experiment while locked in a glass cube in Times Square, New York.
When Kevin Kotoko discovered that he had been selected as one of Fox’s chief World Cup watchers he accepted immediately. What ardent football fan would turn down the opportunity of being paid $50,000 to watch all 104 games at this World Cup, after all? He probably would have tried to watch them all anyway, but now the Liverpool fan from Florida is being paid handsomely to do so.
The only (slight) catch is that he has to watch every match in a custom-built viewing cube in the heart of Times Square. But, hey, that's way preferable to his previous job as a waiter.
Kotoko is sharing the giant fishbowl for the duration of the tournament with Austin Franklin (an influencer from Philadelphia) after they were selected from thousands of applicants who uploaded videos on social media pitching for the role. Both are expected to “create social media content, record their reactions, and engage with fans” throughout the tournament as part of the deal. Their presence in one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares has certainly attracted plenty of interest.
“It has really felt a bit like being on the Truman Show,” Franklin says. “I forget at times that we’re here. I’m watching a game for minutes and then I look over at Kevin and I see people on top of me. It’s like: ‘Oh my God!’ There’s 30 people watching us, watching games, most of the time. It is a weird experience.”
“I mean, I’m sitting on a couch, watching football. It’s pretty fun,” says Franklin. “There is something about the spirit of the World Cup that takes over. We have pretty much the perfect job.”
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