The 2026 FIFA World Cup is finally here, bringing the eyes of the world to North America. But as national teams prepare to battle for football’s ultimate prize, a massive marketing campaign in New York City has stolen the spotlight on social media. It involves Fox Sports and Indeed, which have hired two lucky soccer fans for what many are calling the strangest summer job on earth.

Austin Franklin and Kevin Akoto were selected from thousands of hopeful applicants for a role that requires them to sit inside a custom-built glass box in the heart of Times Square and watch all 104 World Cup matches. It’s part of FOX One’s “Chief World Cup Watchers” team. In return, each of them will receive a hefty $50,000 paycheck.

“Thank you to everyone who applied on @indeed. We appreciate your time, effort, and passion, and are excited for what this summer brings!” FOX One wrote on an Instagram post.

But while it sounds amazing on paper, sports fans on social media have had some hilarious and highly divided reactions to the whole setup.

The Ultimate Dream Job or Modern Soccer Torture?

For a lot of sports fans, getting paid a large sum of money to watch soccer all day sounds like absolute heaven. Most spend their summer days glued to the television screen for free anyway. Turning a regular hobby into a $50k payday would feel like a massive victory.

However, some fans are pointing out that watching all 104 games back-to-back might actually be much harder than it seems. With the long hours, endless extra time, and defensive tactics of modern soccer, some believe the job could easily turn into a heavy mental struggle. One passionate fan shared a very direct view on the matter.

“$50k to watch ninety minutes of boring modern sideways passing is actually torture; they are severely underpaid for this mental stress,” they wrote on X.

But that said, there are some (understandably jealous of Franklin and Akoto. “Dream job. Getting paid $50k for something I was going to do for free anyway is pure genius,” another fan wrote.

A True Human Zoo in the Middle of Times Square

The fact that the viewing cube these two fans will sit inside is completely see-through and located in one of the most iconic places in the country, with thousands of tourists walking around every day, makes the whole thing even more bizarre.

Photos and videos are already going viral, showing large crowds of people literally standing outside in the street and peering through the glass just to watch the two guys react to the television screen. This strange visual has made many social media users laugh at the pure craziness of modern sports entertainment. One confused fan summed up the scene perfectly.

“So it’s basically two people trapped in a glass cube watching football, and crowds gathering to watch them,” they wrote.

The sheer scale of the project has left the internet completely stunned, with people joking about how weird it must feel to be watched so closely by strangers while just trying to enjoy a match. 

“$50K to sit in a glass cube watching every World Cup game while people literally line up OUTSIDE to watch YOU watch it? Fans: ‘I feel so… studied’ Cube guys: ‘At least the AC is good’ This is the most extra marketing stunt in sports history !!”

Whether you think it is a dream gig or a strange social experiment, there is no denying that this project has successfully got the whole world talking. Austin and Kevin will spend the next few weeks living out their World Cup journey in full public view, dealing with the constant gaze of New York crowds while sorting through the historic soccer action.

As the tournament continues to heat up across North America, the two men in the glass box have officially become a major part of the World Cup spectacle itself.

For now, they have watched two matches inside their cage, with Mexico beating South Africa 2-0 and South Korea defeating Czechia 2-1. Canada open their campaign against Bosnia and Herzegovina tonight, while the United States begin theirs against Paraguay later in the day.