Philadelphia Union midfielder says that the City of Brotherly Love can’t wait to host the FIFA Club World Cup in 2025.
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Bedoya has been a member of the Philadelphia Union since 2016
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He played at Club World Cup 2025 venue Lincoln Financial Field during the 2016 Copa America Centenario
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The 2014 FIFA World Cup veteran spoke about Philadelphia’s emergence as a soccer city
For more than eight years the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Alejandro Bedoya have been intertwined. In August 2016, Bedoya signed with the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer (MLS) and since then has become one of the city’s favorite sporting sons.
While the Union play their home matches at Subaru Park in nearby Chester, Bedoya is familiar with Lincoln Financial Field, known locally as ‘The Linc’, having played there with the USA national team in the 2016 Copa America Centenario, plus taking in NFL games as a fan.
The Linc will be serving as one of the 12 venues during the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™, plus will be in use again the following year when FIFA World Cup 26™ comes to town. There is no better person than the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ veteran to give soccer-crazed visitors an idea of what awaits them in the City of Brotherly Love.
What are your thoughts on Philadelphia being selected for not only the World Cup in 26, but the Club World Cup?
It’s awesome. I think it’s amazing for the city, for the region, because Greater Philadelphia encompasses South Jersey, North Jersey and a little bit of Delaware. I think the people here in Philly are going to be extremely surprised by how big the World Cup really is. In Philly, there are huge, passionate sports fans that love the Eagles and the Phillies, but not even a Super Bowl or a World Series can compare to how big a World Cup is.
What can visitors expect in Philadelphia?
I’m excited for people from all over the world to descend onto Philly and see what it has to offer. I think Philly is also a World Heritage City, too, so from a cultural standpoint, there’s so many things in Philly for people to see. You have a lot of great cultural institutions, art, museums, galleries. I think Philly has the most murals or outdoor art in the country. I’m sure there are going to be plenty of videos of people climbing the museum steps trying to recreate the Rocky scene. The food scene is unbelievable here in Philly. I love it. There are so many good restaurants and chefs.
And we can’t talk about Philly without talking about history. There’s going to be plenty of time for people to do tours, see the Constitution Center, Ben Franklin’s house, Betsy Ross’ house. There’s just so much history here as the nation’s first capital, the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Liberty Bell. The city has so much to offer that I think people from all over the world will find it all very interesting.
What is the soccer community like in Philadelphia?
I’ve been surprised, actually, how big of a soccer community Philly really has. There are these English Premier League fan-fests and last year they came to Philly and had it in inside the city hall. The lines were so long. From Friday at six o’clock at night, people were just camping out there to get tickets. I live in the city, so you could feel it. Seeing all the jerseys from all the different teams, obviously Premier League teams but a lot of them were national team jerseys…. People in Philly have showed out for when the women’s national team has played at The Linc and when I played there in Copa America in 2016 against Paraguay.
Plus, you have so much talent in the region that people are excited to talk about. Christian Pulisic is from Hershey, not far from here, Carli Lloyd from just across the river. Same with the Aaronson brothers [Brenden and Paxten].
Are you sensing a lot of excitement in the city already about the Club World Cup and World Cup games?
What I’ve really noticed in being part of the bid committee is that all these folks from public and private workplaces and even in government that are working on the committee, they are hyped about this. Having people like myself and other soccer folks tell them about how big this really is, giving them free tickets to a Union game and they experience the atmosphere and then letting them know that these World Cups are going to be much more fun.
I think more and more people are getting familiar if they haven’t been into soccer. And I know as it gets closer, the energy will build and I have no doubt that they’re going to show how passionate they are about soccer in general and sports when they come out for the World Cup. Philly has got all the conditions to embrace that football culture. Because I think people are going to just love seeing all the different passionate international sports fans that are going to come here. It’s going to be awesome.
What is it like when The Linc is full?
It’s electric. I’ve been there for Eagles play-off games and let me tell you, those fans do not sit down. The experience that you have at The Linc is incredible. It’s a fantastic stadium, very well put together. There’s not a bad seat in it. Depending on where you sit, you can even have a nice view of the sunset and a skyline view of the city as a backdrop. It’s definitely a wonderful atmosphere, which is going to be exacerbated by the passionate soccer fans.
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What’s your favorite national team moment in Philadelphia?
When we played here against Paraguay in the Copa America 2016, because that was the Centenario and that tournament was awesome. We played a great game here at The Linc in which we were a man down and we still managed to win. That was very memorable and it just goes back to showing the toughness of our national team, the spirit of what we’re all about. And that’s Philadelphia in a nutshell. It’s a gritty, blue-collar city.
Let’s switch to your national team career and playing at Brazil 2014. What are your fondest memories of that experience?
I just remember going out against Ghana and staring out the tunnel. I couldn’t even see the field because of all the flashes from the photographers standing at the end of the tunnel. It was just so loud. It was an incredible experience, having my family down there, and the way we kicked it off with Clint Dempsey scoring in the first minute against Ghana. It was almost like an out-of-body experience.
I run out of synonyms to describe the whole experience. We got out of what many considered the group of death, against a Ghana team that we had lost to in 2006 and 2010. And then Portugal with Cristiano Ronaldo in a game we probably should have won, but it still helped us get through when we played Germany. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get the job done against Belgium, but I thought it was a tournament where we could hold our heads high.
How do you feel about the current USA team under Mauricio Pochettino?
I’m optimistic about Pochettino. I think you’ve started to see his approach, being a little bit more pragmatic. I see a lot of wanting to work hard to win the ball back as much as possible, transition moments. I think that bodes well for that American style of play, to still be smart with the ball, that hard work, that greatness and toughness, that physicality to win that ball back and hit teams in transition. I think that’s going be where the team succeeds.
