Imagine planning a journey to watch the Fifa World Cup for four years with your friends, only to be disallowed by your wife or girlfriend. When this happened to one of a group of friends from Mexico, they solved the issue in a manner as creative as their mode of transport – by bringing along a life-size cardboard cutout of the missing friend, Javier.
Since their epic journey started, the group of friends who go by the moniker ‘Ingue Su Matrushka’ on social media, have collected a bunch of fans all over and become one of the many fascinating side stories of the ongoing Fifa World Cup in Russia.
The Mexican football lovers had planned this trip four years back when they saw many fans from South America drive to Brazil in similar buses or vans. They then bought a school bus and refurbished it with bunk beds, television and bright art representing Mexican culture, according to Gizmodo. This process was documented all through their Facebook and Instagram pages, making them cult figures in the football circles as they shipped the bus from Mexico to Portugal to start their European sojourn.
Some of them spent all their savings and some others joined them in the adventure, except for ‘Javi’, whose girlfriend did not let him.
But the friends made sure he would not be left out as they took along a cardboard replica of Javier with the reason of his absence emblazoned on his tee – “my old lady did not let me” in Spanish.
“Javier told us ‘My girl won’t let me come’ and so he couldn’t join us, but we decided to bring him along without her permission. “The truth is he is having an awesome time,” the group posted on their Facebook page.
The cutout has been seen driving the party bus, drinking beer, partying, posing with fans and generally having a good time.
Their adventures since across Europe have gone viral. When they arrived in Moscow, they were greeted by a small crowd of their compatriots, which is one of the biggest foreign contingents in Russia, according to RT.
They have inspired fan art as well and the eye-catching cardboard cutout has done Live interviews on TV from Russia as well. And the icing on the cake? Mexico’s super win over defending champions Germany in the first match, of course.
But this might not even be the craziest football World Cup story coming from Mexico. That award, at present, goes to the “artificial earthquake” that was triggered in the country when 22-year-old Hirving Lozano put his side 1-0 ahead after 35 minutes on the clock.