Danish globetrotter learned football to fit in

Torbjørn “Thor” Pedersen, the Danish traveller who spent a decade visiting every country in the world without flying, had to learn to talk about football to avoid standing out, he told DR.

When he set out in 2013, Pedersen had no interest in the sport. But as he passed through 203 nations and territories, he quickly realised football was a near-universal conversation starter—from South America to Africa, where he met people who followed the Premier League and Bundesliga in detail.

“It’s almost a religion,” he said. “I had to invent an interest in football along the way, or I’d just be too strange.”

Pedersen adopted Arsenal as his team after learning Nicklas Bendtner had once played for the club. “Then the conversation could begin,” he recalled.

He even played himself, including a night match in Zambia where players emerged from the darkness under jeep headlights, the only white man on the pitch.

Now, with the World Cup underway in Mexico, the USA, and Canada, Pedersen is watching two debutants: Uzbekistan and Curaçao. Though he admits Curaçao’s national sport is baseball, he’d return for the climate. His own allegiance, however, lies with Germany—a country where his 2023 travel project earned him awards and bestseller status for his book The Impossible Journey.

“Of course I support Germany. It’s a fantastic country,” he said.