One World, One Game: Communities Celebrate the World Cup in NYC
Sara Konradi
This summer, Magnum Foundation partnered with Storyline for One World, One Game, a storytelling project unfolding across New York City throughout the 2026 World Cup. We gave grants to five local photographers who documented how communities experience the tournament and how New York becomes a gathering place for the world.
See images from the five projects below!
Walaa Yassien: A Thread of Belonging
“Living in New York as a Sudanese refugee, I realized I was looking for places that felt familiar [...] Sudan has never played in a FIFA World Cup. This year, as the national team came closer than ever to qualifying while the country endured a devastating war, it is hard not to imagine what that moment would feel like. Seeing Senegal, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Cape Verde, and other African and Arab nations represented carried a different kind of meaning for me. I wasn't only watching as a photographer. I was celebrating alongside communities that, in different ways, also carry home with them wherever they go.”
Destiny Mata: United by the Block
“As a second-generation Mexican American artist raised in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, photographing World Cup gatherings became deeply personal. I was raised in public housing, where many residents are surrounded by fenced-off green spaces that remain inaccessible, limiting opportunities to connect with our neighbors. That experience has shaped both my life and my work, and it has fueled my commitment to advocating for public spaces that truly belong to the people who live there. While documenting the World Cup watch parties, I found myself drawn to the ways fútbol fans took up space and activated streets and sidewalks [...] The World Cup created energetic spaces where culture, identity, and community become visible, bringing to life city streets where people can gather, celebrate, and remember what it feels like to experience euphoric joy and loss together.”
Richard Louissaint: The Joy and Resilience Continues
“In the midst of an administration bent on making Haitians' lives harder here and in their home country, the solidarity and representation of Haiti during the World Cup was hard to miss. From the [styles] that were created specifically for the games and the ways the Haitian flag was worn, pride and resilience was everywhere.”
Kisha Bari: Morabeza- Cabo Verde in Brooklyn
“Group H of the 2026 FIFA World Cup included Spain, Uruguay, Saudi Arabia and a tiny island nation off the West Coast of Africa, Cabo Verde. Who or where is Cabo Verde?! People were asking. With a population of just over half a million people, they put together a team and qualified for their first ever FIFA World Cup [...]
[In Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn,] September Cafe subsequently became a huge hub for the Cape Verdean World Cup games [...] Cape Verdeans came from as far away as Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vancouver, and [the owner, Sara Lopes] had to purchase two extra TVs to set up outside the cafe.”
Sara Konradi: Far from Watan, Close to Home
“This project documents moments of community connected to parts of the SWANA diaspora in New York during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The word وطن (Arabic pronunciation: waṭan, Persian pronunciation: vatan) means homeland, native land, country, or place of origin. Far from Watan, Close to Home explores the contrast between the physical distance from the homeland and the emotional closeness experienced through gatherings, television screens, and shared sounds across the city – whether it’s a street in Astoria, a bar in Bay Ridge, a soccer field in Brooklyn Bridge Park, or an apartment in Ditmas Park.”
