‘Metro Man’: Kenyan Worker Directing FIFA 2022 Fans in Qatar Goes Viral on Social Media
The Twitter logo is seen on a cell phone, Friday, Oct. 14, 2022, in Boston. The “official” designation for major corporate accounts on Twitter appeared, vanished, and depending on the account, appeared or vanished again and some companies took to the social media platform to warn of imposters.
Muhammad OsmanAs Qatar is hosting the FIFA 2022 world football tournament, the first World Cup hosted in an Arabic country, tens of thousands of workers and volunteers from all over the planet were invited to help organizing the great football event. Not every one of those volunteers and workers had the luck to be noticed as much as the hero of this story.A young man from Mombasa, Kenya named Abubakr Abbass has gone viral on social media after becoming the center of attention of FIFA World Cup fans thanks to his special method of directing people to the nearest metro station in the Qatari capital of Doha.The 23-year-old man’s job is to wear a large foam finger and sit on a high tennis-umpire chair in order to guide football fans visiting Souq Waqif, a traditional market that is considered one of the most famous tourist attractions in Doha, to the nearby metro station using a megaphone.In a number of videos that went viral over the past several days, with one of which was uploaded on the official FIFA Twitter page, Abbass could be seen surrounded by tens of fans cheering him and repeating his catchphrase “metro? This way”.“I saw him on TikTok. I thought it was really funny. He makes me laugh; it’s such a simple task,” said a young impressed fan.“He’s really, really enjoying his job”, said another fan.FIFA World Cup has applauded the Metro Man, saying that the Kenyan has gone viral “thanks to his catchy style of guiding fans to the metro station”.In an interview posted on his TikTok account, Abbass, nicknamed “Metro Man”, expressed his appreciation of the emotional support he received from FIFA fans.“Thanks, guys for your support, we love you,” Metro Man” says in the video.Explaining how all started, the metro guider said that “the fans were just passing by and I thought of a way that I could engage them, and have fun with them.”
