World Cup 2026: Meet the England fan who collected beer from every country

Gus began researching this year’s collection when Uzbekistan emerged as the top of the AFC Asian qualifiers in early 2025.

From that moment on he was constantly checking the results and tables to monitor the progress of difficult beer source countries.

After easy country ticked off, Gus used every contact he had to complete the set.

For some, like Panama, he has been lucky. He was on vacation in Florida and had a beer from Panamanian craft brewery Casa Bruja.

“Iraq was a headache to find, but I spent £30 to buy a bottle from a guy in Poland who went to Iraq a few years ago and brought a bottle back as a souvenir,” Gus said.

“In countries where people don’t drink, like Qatar and Saudi Arabia, I’ve found non-alcoholic malt drinks that are as close to beer as you can get there considering they’re made with barley malt.”

The Iranian community in Finchley, north London, helped Gus, but Qatar proved more tactful.

“I had to trade some rare English beer with a bloke from Finland for a can of Fijian from Qatar, and I traded a Panamanian beer with another collector for a bottle of Musi from Saudi Arabia,” Gus explained.

There are even beers from countries that didn’t qualify, like Costa Rica and Guatemala, when the opportunity was bought just to be safe.

Friends brought him back beers from Curaçao, Jordan and Algeria – the latter found in a shop in northern Paris – Gus says half of his collection was found abroad.

The final beer, a non-alcoholic pineapple-flavored malt drink, arrived from Iraq just two weeks ago.

After spending nearly £250 on 48-beers, will Gus save or save his collection?

“I’ll drink every beer if that team is eliminated from the competition, basically as a toast to their participation and failure to win the tournament,” he said.

Like many England fans, Gus will not be traveling to the most expensive World Cup in history.

“I’d love to go to some games,” he said. “But the cost of flights, hotels and matches was too much of a deterrent for me.”

Gus said it would likely be his last World Cup challenge as sourcing 48 beers was “too much trouble” – but he could go to Euro 2028.

“It’s only 24 teams so it’s much easier to collect. Well, unless Andorra or San Marino qualify, I don’t mind going to countries I’ve never been to before.”