interview
A Dutch football fan travels the world after she made a big splash during the match against Japan. It turns out to be Camila Benen (23), who is called the eye-catcher of the World Cup. How does that feel? “I never expected that the attention would shift so much to my appearance, but I try to take it lightly.”
Media and culture editor
She seemed like a magnet for the cameras last Sunday. The American news channel Fox 4 News reported live from the anticipation outside the stadium and spoke to Camila. OnsOranje, the KNVB’s Instagram channel, shared photos of a World Cup party. Who insisted? Camila.
Then came the 38th minute of the match. The camera went to the audience and captured Camila. Millions of viewers saw her cheer with an orange scarf and kiss the lion on her shirt. Screenshots soon appeared on X, which also went viral on other social media. “The prettiest girl I have seen so far at the World Cup,” it said.
“It’s really bizarre to experience,” Camila tells this site. She is so mediagenic that you would almost think it was all planned in advance, as a stunt by a clever sponsor. But that is not the case, she assures.
‘There was nothing behind it’
“The moment I came into the picture was completely spontaneous,” says Camila. “I absolutely did not expect it to be shared everywhere. There was nothing behind it, there was no collaboration with a company or anything like that. I was just there as a supporter with my family. Everything that happened after that was pure coincidence.”
She was there with her father, mother and brother. Camila was born in Rotterdam and moved to Miami when she was 10 because of her father’s work. “My mother is Cuban and a lot of her family lives in Miami, so we already had a lot of family there,” she says. “We are huge football fans and especially Feyenoord supporters. When it became known that the World Cup was coming to the US, we immediately said: we have to go here.”
Focus on appearance
Now she is suddenly the ‘best-looking fan’ of the World Cup. There is a lot of talk on the internet about her appearance, even though she is not a model: she recently obtained her master’s degree in architecture from Florida International University.
“It’s honestly quite surreal that people call me that,” she says. “Of course, I never expected that the attention would shift so much to my appearance. At the same time, I try to take it lightly. Ultimately, I was just there to encourage the Dutch team. I get a lot of nice messages, reactions and new followers from all kinds of countries.”
In the picture again?
Anyone hoping to see her on screen again is out of luck. Camila is currently visiting family and friends in the Netherlands and watching the next matches from here. Even if she hadn’t gone viral, this past weekend would have been a ‘once in a lifetimeexperience,” she says.
“I loved the Orange celebrations beforehand and also the Orange parade towards the stadium with thousands of supporters. That really gave the feeling of a small part of the Netherlands abroad.”
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