In the shadow of Tennessee鈥檚 Signal and Lookout mountains, 8-year-old Beckham balanced on a fence for more than three hours, gripping a handwritten note and waiting for to emerge.
鈥淚 love you and I look up to you,鈥� the note addressed to and read. 鈥淭hanks for coming to my city. I hope you win the World Cup.鈥�
As the players ran onto the field, his eyes grew wide.
鈥淒ad,鈥� he whispered, 鈥渢hey鈥檙e real.鈥�
The scene was equally incredible to his father, Jaxon McClure, a Marine Corps veteran who grew up in Chattanooga playing soccer with trash cans for goalposts, now coaches hundreds of local children and named his first child after one of the sport鈥檚 greatest stars, .
This summer 鈥� 32 years since the United States first hosted 鈥� Chattanooga is among several cities established as World Cup base camps, where visiting teams live and train between matches.
Spain, which is , has set up camp at a boarding school on the Tennessee River in Chattanooga; Iraq is in a mountain resort town in West Virginia with fewer than 3,000 residents; and Germany is in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where cobblestone streets and tobacco warehouses share space with German flags and television crews.
Southern hospitality on display
A 144-foot (44-meter) underground waterfall beneath Lookout Mountain is lit up red and the Embassy Suites in downtown Chattanooga, where the Spanish team is staying, is adorned with Spain’s red and yellow flag, known as la Rojigualda. Giant banners featuring Spanish players and declaring, 鈥淏ienvenidos a Chattanooga鈥� greeted La Roja as the team arrived at Chattanooga Airport.
Native Chattanoogan Skip Schwartz said so many people are wearing Spanish jerseys that 鈥測ou don’t know if they鈥檙e from Spain, hoping to get a glimpse, or they are locals who have bought into the La Roja bandwagon.鈥�
Around 25,000 people entered a lottery for 1,000 tickets to watch Spain practice at Baylor School, a 600-acre (240-hectare) private academy for students grade 6 through 12.
Meanwhile, tickets to watch Germany practice at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem sold out in four minutes.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just fun to see everyone start to care about something they didn鈥檛 care about before,鈥� said Savannah Lahey, who manages soccer bar Small Batch Beer Co. in downtown Winston-Salem. The bar has extended its hours for watch parties and created a German-inspired menu featuring schnitzel sandwiches and sauerbraten for Germany鈥檚 opening match.
鈥淚t鈥檚 getting to make people feel at home, even when they鈥檙e not at home,鈥� Lahey said.
At the Greenbrier in West Virginia, that has hosted presidents and foreign leaders, Iraqi flags flew alongside the Stars and Stripes as the national team arrived for its World Cup training camp.
Baylor provides outstanding soccer facilities
Teams chose from FIFA-approved base camps across North America, with higher-ranked nations getting the earliest picks. Spain selected Chattanooga over larger cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles, then worked with Baylor to create an expansive headquarters around its training fields and media facilities.
FIFA inspectors graded Baylor’s facilities, including the condition of the grass and its drainage and irrigation systems, the school’s operations and systems director Sam Green said. To preserve the pitches for Spain, Baylor鈥檚 players trained this spring on artificial turf, a sacrifice Green said seniors accepted without complaint.
Hidden behind a tree line, two grass pitches form the center of Spain’s daily training. The airport and their downtown hotel are minutes away and , where Spain will play two group-stage matches, is within easy reach. After Spain鈥檚 first official practice, players headed straight to the campus pool, where they reportedly swam and laid out and had a good time before returning to training.
For Schwartz, who now serves on Baylor’s board of trustees, Spain’s choice is meaningful because he and his teammates helped to lay Bermuda sod for their new soccer field when he played soccer at Baylor in the late 1980s and early 1990s. That field has since been replaced by an indoor tennis facility, which serves as Spain鈥檚 media center, but the school now has three soccer pitches and one of the region鈥檚 premier soccer programs.
鈥淚f somebody had told me then that 40 years later Spain would be using this campus as the foundation for a World Cup, I wouldn鈥檛 even have tried to fathom it,鈥� he said.
鈥榃ithout a doubt, I鈥檓 cheering for Spain’
Tina Ankar, a first generation Palestinian American, said she became a soccer fan because of the World Cup and her boyfriend, who grew up watching games with his Mexican family. At Spain鈥檚 open practice, hundreds of fans shouted 鈥漋amos, Espa帽a!鈥� after nearly every touch. Ankar found herself swept up in the energy.
鈥淚鈥檝e got to watch these guys all the way to the end,鈥� she said. 鈥淣ow we really have someone to cheer on besides America.鈥�
Before Spain鈥檚 first public practice, Baylor students slipped into the locker room and snapped photos of stalls freshly labeled with the names of Spain鈥檚 stars, debating which player had inherited 鈥渢heir鈥� locker.
鈥淚 sat in that locker room almost every single day this spring,鈥� 17-year-old midfielder and graduating senior Heath Techasiriwan said.
Techasiriwan, a Filipino American and lifelong Lionel Messi fan who rooted for , said there was no question who he will support this summer.
鈥淲ithout a doubt, I鈥檓 cheering for Spain,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 see players like Pedri, Gavi and Lamine Yamal literally right in front of me and not cheer for them.鈥�
Goalkeeper Mathew Ramirez commutes an hour each way to Baylor from Calhoun, Georgia. He grew up watching Barcelona with his father, who immigrated from Guatemala, and plans to watch Spain鈥檚 World Cup matches over carne asada with family and friends.
After practice, Yamal, who is 18, signed the 16-year-old goalie’s custom Barcelona jersey. Ramirez told the star in Spanish, 鈥淲atching you play gives me happiness.鈥�
A young fan takes selfies and dreams of superheroes
Back in Chattanooga, Beckham collects signatures and takes selfies with players before heading home in the Spain jersey his father says he slept in the night before.
His father says Beckham kept repeating, 鈥淲ait, Dad. They鈥檙e real. Lamine Yamal is a real person. I just thought they were like superheroes. They鈥檙e on TV.鈥�
Chattanooga has come a long way since the neighborhood games McClure remembers. He is now a soccer coach to about 850 children, and the city has professional men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 teams.
鈥淭hey could have gone anywhere in this country,鈥� McClure said of Spain, 鈥渁nd they chose us.鈥�
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