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A cafe owner near the Hangzhou airport spent two weeks and thousands of yuan on a World Cup watch party, only to take in the tournament's June 11 opener entirely alone.
Zhao Chong began organizing the screening two weeks before Mexico and South Africa kicked off the 2026 World Cup, the South China Morning Post reported.
Banking on a big turnout at his shop beside the runway of Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, he set up a projector and ran up a bill worth thousands of yuan on beer and snacks. He spent days promoting the event online, with reminders urging people to "bring like-minded people together," according to the SCMP.
The night before the match, he mass-messaged 4,000 contacts and personally invited dozens of friends. He had made up his mind, he told local media, that if even one customer walked in, he would lay on free-flowing beer and unlimited snacks.
No one came. The timing did him no favors, because the 14-hour gap between Mexico City and China meant the opener kicked off at 3 a.m. on June 12 in Hangzhou, in the small hours of a work night.
As the match began on the big screen, the untouched food and drinks were the only things on Zhao's tables. He pulled an all-nighter alone.
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A cafe owner in China watches a World Cup 2026 match alone, June 11, 2026. Photo courtesy of Weibo |
China is also not at this World Cup. The national team was eliminated in Asian qualifying in June 2025 after a 1-0 loss to Indonesia, leaving the country watching a tournament it has reached only once, in 2002.
The 48-team expansion let in more nations than any World Cup before it, but still not China, which lent the early-morning vigils of die-hard fans like Zhao an extra note of loneliness.
That has not dulled the country's appetite for the event. Across China, fans filled bars and cafes that had upgraded their screens and sound systems for the opener, the Global Times reported.
Zhao found a sliver of consolation in a lottery ticket, having wagered 40 yuan ($5.90) on a draw and a South Africa win. Both bets missed.
As dawn broke over the runway, he watched Mexico win 2-0 at the Estadio Azteca, in an opener that produced three red cards, the most in any World Cup opening match. The game drew what industry tracker Deadline described as the most-watched World Cup opener on record, a global audience of millions that only sharpened the contrast with Zhao's empty room.
His vigil struck a chord online, where Zhao briefly became what the SCMP called the "loneliest" fan of the tournament's opener.
The attention brought a small payoff. Later that same morning of June 12, two customers turned up for the second match, South Korea's 2-1 comeback win over the Czech Republic.
Zhao's shop normally draws 200 to 300 customers on a weekend, the Malaysian daily Sin Chew Daily reported, and he was counting on the weekend's run of matches to finally fill his tables.
