A FOOTY fan has completed his own challenge of collecting one beer from all 32 nations competing at this year’s World Cup in Qatar.
Gus Hully has continued his own tradition of collecting beverages from each country at the tournament, then drinking each one when its respective nation is eliminated.
The 35-year-old has amassed an impressive collection, including lesser-known beers like La Gazelle from Senegal, and Hitachino Red Rice Ale from Japan.
Gus, from East Finchley, North London, has spent the past six months using contacts through various countries to collect the beers – which also include non-alcoholic options from nations like Iran, Saudi Arabia and Qater.
The Cheltenham Town fan has spent around £150 gathering the booze right in time for the tournament’s first match on Sunday (NOV 20) between host nation Qatar and Ecuador.
In a post to Twitter yesterday (TUE), analyst Gus shared his impressive collection, writing: “A beer from all 32 countries playing at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Here we go!”
He added a thread in the comment section, alphabetically listing each nation with the chosen drink.
The post has received over 75,000 likes, 9,000 retweets and hundreds of comments from impressed footy fans and even beer companies.
Despite many comments praising Gus’s impressive haul, there has been some debate about the chosen beers.
One Twitter user wrote: “Oh man you could have done much better than Moosehead for a Canadian beer.”
A second said: “Of all the English beers he could have chosen, he goes for Camden Hells lager? Philistine.”
Another added: “No Fosters? You’ve had a disaster there lad.”
A fourth user replied: “You’ve had a shocker with the USA. So many fabulous beers over there now (Goose Island for example) and you go for Miller.”
The post has even caught the attention of Dutch drinks giant Heineken who replied with a picture of a disappointed-looking cat pillow in the background of Gus’s photo.
Their reply read: “Our face after finding out we are not among the chosen beer.”
Speaking today (WED), Gus said: “I’ve done the same thing for previous tournaments (Euro 2016, World Cup 2018, Women’s World Cup 2019, Euro 2020) and I said I wouldn’t do it again for Qatar 2022 but I couldn’t resist it.
“The concept is simple – get a beer that’s actually been brewed in the 32 countries that are competing and then drink them once they get knocked out.
“Some countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia and Qatar don’t have alcoholic beers so I’ve got non-alcoholic malt beverages for them.
“Other countries were easy to get, some countries I had to trade internationally (Costa Rica and Cameroon with people in Germany and Belgium respectively), rely on people living abroad (a friend in Barcelona helped me out with Ecuador and Uruguay) or rely on a friend of a friend living in that country.
“Or, you have to message a guy on Untappd because he’s on holiday in Senegal and has checked in Biere La Gazelle on the app in the hope that he will bring one back for you.
“Pretty much everybody is on board although there’s a few negative comments but that’s to be expected, it’s the internet.
“I’m currently getting slated for choosing the wrong Serbian beer or the wrong Dutch beer, you can’t please everybody but it’s all part of the fun.
“My wife finds it hilarious that so many people are seeing my stupid face on the internet.
“Plus she gets to enjoy some of the beer so there’s definitely no complaints from her.
“Ghanaian twitter seems to be well on board with the big bottle of Club at the back which is nice.
“The original idea was from someone trying to do the same thing on an internet forum back in the early 2010s.
“Ultimately they never managed to do it so I thought I’d be able to go one better and complete it.
“It all took me about six months all in all and I had a few sources from previous efforts so it wasn’t too bad really.
“I’m not looking forward to the non-alcs from Iran, Saudi Arabia or Qatar and I’ve heard the bottle of Cass from South Korea isn’t anything to shout about, but I’ll be looking forward to hopefully drinking all of them before the can of Camden Hells – as a victory beer!”
The 2022 World Cup gets underway this weekend (NOV 20) in Qatar.
Five-time winners Brazil are widespread favourites to win the tournament, with most bookies giving them odds of about 4/1.
