FIFA Took IShowSpeed’s World Cup Bet to the Final

FIFA added IShowSpeed’s World Cup song to its official album two days after telling him, on X, that it would be in touch. The track, World Cup (Champions), had gone up on June 1 with no FIFA deal behind it.

On July 19, the 21-year-old Ohio streamer opened the closing show before Spain beat Argentina in extra time at New York New Jersey Stadium. Shakira and Burna Boy still had the official song.

FIFA Said It Would Be in Touch, Then Put Him on the Album

Darren Jason Watkins Jr., who streams as IShowSpeed, tagged the FIFA World Cup account after the video took off and asked to make the song official. The governing body’s reply was four words and an eyes emoji.

https://x.com/FIFAWorldCup/status/2061541568985633035

The public note landed on June 1. On June 3, during a livestream, Speed opened a FIFA World Cup Instagram message that read, “We heard it. We liked it. It’s on the Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Album.” He jumped on the bed, hit Cristiano Ronaldo’s celebration, and told the chat it was official.

That same afternoon FIFA published the full list for its 18-track official World Cup album, with Speed down as Champion, track 16, between Danny Ocean and a Shaggy cut. Gianni Infantino, FIFA’s president, sold the record as a music squad built for the scale of the tournament.

FIFA has brought together an extraordinarily strong music squad and one befitting the biggest single-sport event in history.

Gianni Infantino, FIFA President, official album release, June 3, 2026

FROM THE REPLY TO THE FINAL

1. June 1, 2026: Speed releases World Cup (Champions) on Warner Records and SALXCO, then FIFA replies that it will be in touch.
2. June 3, 2026: FIFA adds the song to the official album and names it Champion on the 18-song list.
3. June 11, 2026: The tournament opens in Mexico City. Shakira and Burna Boy sing Dai Dai at the opening ceremony.
4. June 19, 2026: FIFA says the album has 336 million streams and that Dai Dai and Champions sit one-two on YouTube’s global music-video chart.
5. July 19, 2026: Speed performs the song at the closing ceremony before the Spain-Argentina final.

The June reply looked like a stall. It was a hold on a booking FIFA could confirm once the views were public.

A 48-Nation Roll Call on a Warner Single

Zach Madden directed the clip in Miami, with Joanna Nguyen on camera and Slipz and Ames J. Ward as executive producers. Speed wears a Portugal jersey the whole way, a nod to Ronaldo, and the published lyrics hang on a chant built for a crowd that already knew his 2022 football song.

The video crossed 500,000 YouTube views in two hours and 3.3 million in under a day. By June 3 it was over 8.3 million. The published lyrics hang on a chant wait.

He names every side in the expanded 48-team World Cup field, from Algeria through Ivory Coast, with Curaçao and Uzbekistan in the pile. Then the chorus hits the line people actually sang back.

“Oh, eh-oh, eh-oh-eh-oh / Let’s go, we the champions.” The other hook is dumber and louder: “Put your flags up in the air.” That is the whole pitch. A streamer reading the group-stage poster over drums, powder, and flags.

The music video ran 4 minutes 58 seconds. The album cut is 4 minutes 15 seconds. Neither sounded like a Sony Latin anthem, which was the point of posting it ten days before kickoff with no crest on the artwork.

Why FIFA Kept Shakira and Speed in Separate Lanes

Dai Dai, the official song, was already out on May 15. FIFA never moved Speed into that slot. It parked him on the compilation, kept Shakira for the ceremony that starts the tournament, and later gave the streamer the show that starts the final.

WHAT THE JUNE 3 MESSAGE DELIVERED

• Album placement: Champion sits as track 16 on the 18-song FIFA Sound record, not as the official song.
• A later stage: FIFA called him in July and asked him to perform the track before the final.
• No anthem title: Dai Dai stayed the official song and played before every kickoff.

That split is how you harvest a YouTube audience without replacing the artist you already paid to be the face of the tournament. Infantino’s “breakthrough voices” line did the same job in press-release language.

THE TWO WORLD CUP TRACKS

FIFA got both crowds. Speed got the lane his viewers already lived in. Shakira kept the title that still goes on the broadcast graphic.

The Streamer Who Opened the World Cup Final

In mid-July he told a livestream that FIFA had called and asked him to do Champions before the final. He thought it was a joke. Then he said the quiet part in the voice he uses when a bit turns real.

At first I thought it was a prank call. A young kid from Ohio, Portugal is about to perform at the World Cup Final.

IShowSpeed, livestream, July 2026

On July 19 he walked out first, in a white suit, over a pitch graphic of the Empire State Building. Drummers and dancers in bright tracksuits filled the space behind him. Post Malone and Swae Lee followed. Robbie Williams, Laura Pausini, and Nicole Scherzinger were on the same pre-match bill. Jennifer Hudson sang the U.S. anthem. Tom Cruise made a cameo.

Kickoff was 3 p.m. Eastern. Spain won 1-0 after extra time. Argentina did not put a shot on target in 120 minutes. Speed had already done his bit and gone back to the stream, still in the suit, talking through the nerves.

Several watchers said the vocal was playback. That read is fair for a stadium show of this size, and it sat next to the other complaint, which was simpler: a YouTuber had no business on that grass. The counter was just as simple. He was the first content creator FIFA had ever put on a World Cup final stage, and the clip of him doing it moved faster than the rest of the pre-match music.

Dai Dai Played Before All 104 Kickoffs

The official song did the job FIFA hired it to do. Shakira and Burna Boy sang it at the opening ceremony on June 11 at Mexico City Stadium, in front of a reported 80,000-plus. Broadcasts then used it before all 104 kickoffs.

DAI DAI ON THE CHARTS

• Global Excl. U.S.: First official World Cup song to hit No. 1 on Billboard’s ranking since that chart began in 2020.
• One week of audio: 31.5 million streams outside the United States in the June 19-25 window, per Luminate.
• U.S. Hot 100: It reached No. 74, Shakira’s second World Cup cut to land on that list after Waka Waka.
• Mid-June video: FIFA said Dai Dai and Champions ranked first and second on YouTube‘s Top 100 Music Videos Global chart that week.

By June 19 FIFA put the whole album at 336 million streams and 364 million YouTube views across 19 videos, with a No. 3 bow on Spotify’s global album-debut list between June 5 and 7. Speed’s studio cut has more than 35 million Spotify streams. After the final, World Cup (Champions) saw a 61 percent rise in streams. On the UK Video Streaming chart it debuted at No. 8 and peaked at No. 3. It also reached No. 33 on New Zealand’s Hot Singles list, No. 10 on the Dutch Single Tip chart, and No. 16 on Billboard Vietnam’s Hot 100.

Those are two different wins. Dai Dai owned radio, the kickoff slot, and the global audio chart. Champions owned the YouTube argument Speed’s audience already knew how to have.

A Frightful Cocktail, a Nervous Walk Back

Alexis Petridis, writing about the live music around the final, was not kind. He called Speed an influencer who wrestles on camera and treated the record as noise with a football chant glued on.

A frightful cocktail of thunderous drums and autotuned vocals, featuring lyrics that make your average football song sound as erudite and profound as the oeuvre of Leonard Cohen.

Alexis Petridis, music critic, on the 2026 World Cup final entertainment

That review sat in the same week as people posting that the World Cup had been ruined by a YouTuber. Other replies treated the booking as the joke coming true: a chaotic clip account had walked from a Portugal jersey in Miami to the last show of the tournament. The split was not about a missing key change. It was about whether that pitch, on that Sunday, still belonged only to the old kind of famous.

FIFA’s bet was that it did not have to choose. Keep Shakira for the anthem, keep Speed for the kids who watch football at 3 a.m. on a phone, and let the four-word reply do the marketing. Speed’s bet was that the views would force a door. Both got what they asked for. Neither got the other’s prize.

By July 28 the music video had passed 105 million YouTube views. The man who posted it as an unofficial anthem on June 1 had already sung it in front of the last crowd of the tournament, then gone back live to tell them he had been scared. Spain had the trophy. FIFA had the clip. Speed had the stage he asked for, and not the title he asked for.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was IShowSpeed’s first World Cup song?

World Cup, released on November 4, 2022 through Warner Records ahead of the Qatar tournament. The RIAA certified it gold at 500,000 units in the United States, and the video had about 230 million YouTube views by July 2026, which is why a 2026 sequel was expected.

Where was the Champions music video filmed?

Miami, with extras drawn from Florida International University who were not told the job until the shoot day, one week before the June 1 release. The clip leans on Ghanaian dance and colored powder, and Speed stays in a Ronaldo Portugal shirt throughout.

How long is World Cup (Champions)?

The streaming version on the official album is 4 minutes 15 seconds. The YouTube music video runs 4 minutes 58 seconds, which is the cut most of his audience saw first.

Who produced World Cup (Champions)?

BongoByTheWay, Pink Slip, RiotUSA, and Shonci produced the track. The writing credits include Watkins, Doobie Newton, Ephrem Louis Lopez Jr., Kyle Buckley, Olivier Francois, Shawn Shea, and Vicente Jimenez Gomez del Barco.

The four-word reply from June 1 is now a closed loop. Speed got the album and the final. Shakira kept the anthem. FIFA kept both names on the same tournament.