Jack Goodwin, a 34-year-old England fan from Chichester, West Sussex, has spent his entire £40,000 house deposit on a trip to the 2026 World Cup in the United States with his father. He has pre-booked hotels, flights and tickets for every England match through to the final in New Jersey on July 19.
Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
Speaking ahead of England's round-of-16 match against the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Atlanta, Goodwin said: "We've been to New York, we've seen the World Cup and we're going to see us bring it home. It's a simple equation." He described the trip as a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" and added: "I've got no kids, I've got no wife, so why not?"
Cost breakdown
Goodwin revealed that the final ticket alone cost about £4,000. "For the group games... I think it was around 350 dollars. We were in the Gods. But we've got category one tickets now for the next few games, and they were 600 dollars face value. The ticket for the final, which is a joke, was through the England Supporters Club. Face value for category two was 8,000 Australian dollars, so about £4,000," he said.
Confidence in England's progress
The Stoke City fan admitted to "sweating" when Panama held England to a 0-0 draw at half-time in the final group game. "We've pre-booked everything now to the final – hotels, tickets, everything sorted. We were sweating because we got all our tickets through the FIFA ballot – if we didn't top the group, all of our tickets would have become invalid," he explained. Despite the risk, his father's confidence led them to book flights to Atlanta weeks in advance. "We booked them a few weeks ago, so we were pretty confident. I mean, my dad was pretty confident, so I went with his confidence."
Financing the trip
Goodwin confirmed that all tickets were purchased at face value, but still "mega expensive." He estimated the total cost at a "good £40,000." "We've met a lot of people that did ballots and didn't get tickets so we're extremely lucky to be here to be honest," he added.
