The soccer scene in Houston was already exciting. It’s just heating up.
In Houston, soccer has always had a heartbeat, but in 2026, the volume is getting turned all the way up. As an official FIFA World Cup host city, Houston is inviting national teams from Portugal, Germany, Cape Verde, Curaçao, and the Netherlands. International fans are expected to flood the city, hoping to catch a glimpse of their favorite players, teams, and Cristiano Ronaldo among the living legends on the itinerary. The city expects 500,000 visitors and an estimated $1.5 billion in economic impact, putting Houston on a global stage watched by over 200 million viewers.
What FIFA is about to discover, Houston’s soccer faithful already know: This city has been a soccer town long before the cameras arrived. Official fan clubs carry the flame for overseas teams in the likes of England’s Premier League and Germany’s Bundesliga, showing the world that fandom isn’t limited to the local Dash and Dynamo but can thrive an ocean away. For these superfans, it always has.
On a recent match day, the bar at Velvet Oak Tavern erupts. The room fills with die-hard fans who showed up to support Arsenal FC. The bartender reaches for a cord behind the bar and rings a bell—victory. Husband-and-wife duo Daniel Camacho and Ana Cisneros cheer alongside fellow Houston Gooners Mark Omezi, Wayne Spiegel, Wilson Vick, and Sean Leder, each with glasses raised, high-fives landing. Darren Kolzek and Kevin Dunham, co-branch managers of the Gooners, are all smiles as they whoop with fellow fans.
Fans of international soccer teams gather at designated bars throughout the year.
The World Cup has already brought new energy to the city, Dunham notes, but for some, the season never really ends. Established in 2011, the Houston Gooners are the city’s only official fan club affiliated with North London–based Arsenal FC. The club counts around 200 full-time members. Together, they run live watch parties at Velvet Oak for every match, which means gathering at the bar at all hours. “We still wake up at like 6am, 6:30, if it has to be that early, to support this team,” Dunham says.
Year-round, the Gooners host toy and school-supply drives, and a chili cook-off to raise funds for local soccer initiatives. In soccer culture, “support is passion,” Dunham says.
Everyone has a unique story about why they joined. For Kolzek, watching Arsenal games was the norm growing up in England. “I didn’t grow up with the Oilers or the Astros,” he says.
Other fans arrived by happenstance. A youth soccer player and longtime Dynamo fan, Leder won a state championship as a child and, as a prize, was invited to an Arsenal tournament. Vick chose Arsenal because it appeared first alphabetically in the FIFA video game. Dunham caught his first match with friends while on a trip in India. Camacho inherited his love of the team from his family and eventually converted Cisneros. And Omezi, originally from Nigeria, became an instant fan when Arsenal recruited Nigerian legend Nwankwo Kanu, who made him feel represented.
The Hooston Gooners gather for every Arsenal match at Velvet Oak Tavern.
“I love coming here,” says Spiegel. Originally from a small town in Virginia, where other international soccer fans were scarce, Spiegel moved to Houston in 2019, joined the Gooners, and fit right in. “I just love the atmosphere and the community,” he says. “The feeling of being surrounded by other people, other supporters, and when everything goes right, and we score—the adrenaline you get from it is so exciting and just adds a lot to the match day experience.”
Camacho and Cisneros moved from New York to Houston in 2021 and found their community on the pitch—or close to it. “It almost feels a bit more connecting for anyone who has international roots,” says Cisneros, who credits her love of soccer to her family’s Ecuadoran background. With the World Cup drawing fans from around the globe, that sense of connection is about to expand considerably. “It’s a beautiful game to watch, and the people you’ll meet are very passionate and very, very loving,” Leder adds.
Just a few miles away at Johnny McElroy’s Irish Pub, the Houston Blues gather for their weekly highlight: the Chelsea FC match. Donning the West London team’s signature blue, fans pour into every corner of the pub. Fan club manager Matt Pursley leads the group, though his path to the Premier League, the highest level of England’s professional soccer, came in a roundabout way.
An Arsenal flag hangs in Velvet Oak Tavern.
American soccer was all he knew, until FIFA—the video game, not the organization—changed that. “The only way people really knew about the outside world, in the European game, was really through playing FIFA,” he says. Watching a Chelsea vs. Manchester United match on TV made Pursley an instant fan. Chelsea won. Pursley preferred blue. The rest is history. “It’s like watching the Super Bowl every single day,” Pursley remarks of the Premier League.
Superfan Justin Gardiner grew up playing the game but found his favorite team while vacationing in Germany. He and his wife were visiting Munich when they scored tickets to see FC Bayern Munich at Allianz Arena. The match was “incredible” and “electric,” with thousands of screaming fans and high-octane gameplay, Gardiner recalls. “Just the atmosphere—it’s unlike anything in America,” he adds. Back in Houston, he searched for something to replicate the high he felt.
His first instinct: Find other Bayern fans. He struggled—Germany’s Bundesliga wasn’t yet airing on American television, but he was certain other Bayern fans existed. He reached out directly to the team itself and began searching for the 25 full-time members required for the group to become an official fan club. Gardiner launched the first and only official team fan club in the state. “It wasn’t the vision to have a statewide fan club until it was,” he says with a smile. “Then we realized the strength that we have together.”
On Arsenal match days, expect to see of red at Velvet Oak Tavern.
The club now boasts around 500 members across chapters in Houston, Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Fort Worth, and New Braunfels. This year, the fan club hosted Texas Fest, a massive Houston watch party held in conjunction with the German team. The clubs invited Bayern legend Claudio Pizarro for a meet-and-greet, and over 1,000 fans attended Pitch 25—a record for the Texas club.
Membership has opened doors well beyond the average fan experience. When two members got married, Bayern organizers sent them autographed jerseys and flew the mascot to the wedding. The Texas club even landed a feature in the Amazon Prime documentary FC Bayern: Behind the Legend. With Germany preparing to play on Houston soil this summer, the club is planning for what might be its biggest moment yet.
Europe may be thousands of miles away, but for these soccer fans, England and Germany feel like they are just next door. The Gooners, Blues, and FC Bayern have spent years forging friendships that outlast each season, giving supporters a home beyond the match. No World Cup schedule could have manufactured what they’ve built.
“It’s not necessarily about the sport,” Gardiner says. “It’s about the community.”