CSL intern Thiago Freire has just completed an adventure of a lifetime – working for FIFA at the World Cup in Brazil.
While Jonathan De Guzman was the only Canadian player in the World Cup finals, and Joe Fletcher the only Canadian match official, Freire may well have been the only Canadian to be in the FIFA workforce where he was a member of the FIFA marketing group.
Freire, who attended Port Credit Secondary School, worked in the CSL office from January through August 2013 on an internship from Humber College where he studied sports administration and marketing He was also a member of the broadcasting team during the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2013 and before leaving for the World Cup in Brazil was for four months a Marketing, Communications and Volunteer Services Intern with the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games Organizing Committee.
Thiago Freire was involved in a World Cup that will go down as one of the most successful. An average attendance pegged at 53,592 (a total 3.4 million fans attended the 64 games), was the second highest ever – next to the World Cup in the U.S. in 1994.
The 171 goals scored equaled the World Cup record with some of the greatest goals ever seen, and it was certainly the most colourful World Cup.
For Canadian fans as a member of CONCACAF, we have pride in the stirring performance and the strong showing of the United States and tiny Costa Rica and as North Americans, the good showing of the United States will have a positive effect for soccer in Canada.
Thiago Freire is of Brazilian ancestry – his knowledge of the country and command of the language added to his strong experience working and being educated in sports when selected to be on on-site member of the FIFA team.
If he has a sinking feeling at all it will be the two games that devastated Brazil on home soil, the 7-1 crunch by Germany followed by the 3-0 loss to the Netherlands for third place, which no doubt played a part in the decision to drop coach Luiz Scolari.
But even those events will not belittle his enormous satisfaction of playing a part and contributing to one of the world’s most successful sporting events ever.