Screenshot via @FreddyLA7 on X.
“Freddy,” the German tourist who went viral for his awestruck posts extolling the delights of American cultural institutions like Waffle House and Buc-ee’s as he travelled the country for the World Cup, has returned to social media after a brief hiatus, just in time for the semi-final matches.
Along with Scotland’s Tartan Army, the Norwegians with their Viking rowing chant, and Europeans absolutely losing their minds with a newfound addiction to ranch dressing, Freddy is one of many World Cup foreign tourists who captured American hearts with his posts and he and two friends traversed the country.
The German’s enthusiasm for American sports, fast food, and music racked up hundreds of thousands of followers, drew the attention of celebrities and politicians, and led to invitations and meet-ups with country singer Ella Langley, former Houston Texas player J.J. Watt, Houston Mayor John Whitmire, and multiple professional sports teams — plus lots of complimentary snacks and swag. Germany’s loss during the Round of 32 didn’t end Freddy’s travelogue, as he had booked travel for the duration of the tournament.
File this under the “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” Department: Freddy soon found himself the target of backlash and conspiracies after political commentators promoted his posts to make partisan arguments. Freddy was accused of faking his guileless enthusiasm for America and being a MAGA plant, some sort of psyop, or secretly on the payroll for some elaborate product marketing scheme.
Online sleuths combed through years of his past posts, arguing that he had misled his followers about not visiting the U.S. before. To be fair, that was not a claim Freddy himself had made but an incorrect assumption by some media and people who shared his posts, and he pointed out that while this was not his first visit to the States, this is a huge and diverse country and it was his first time visiting many areas, especially Southern small towns.
Freddy deactivated his account on X amid the backlash, but has now returned, posting a long explanation on his account, explaining that he had left because “things became increasingly toxic.”
“For some people, it’s unfortunately unfathomable that a good story can exist without some kind of hidden agenda behind it,” he wrote. “There was even a Reddit group going through my entire account trying to find anything they could use to reveal my identity.” Throughout his posts, Freddy has avoided showing his face or his friends’ faces, either through the camera angle or by adding emojis to the photos.
He continued, saying that he knew it was “only a small percentage of people,” but the attacks “became exhausting.”
However, the “many kind messages” he received from people who told him they “genuinely enjoyed following” his travels made him change his mind.
“Some people even told me that their grandparents regularly ask them, ‘What are the Germans up to today?’ I think that’s really cool,” he wrote. “I decided to continue because I realized that the overwhelming majority of people loved following along. A small group of very loud people shouldn’t be able to ruin something that brought so many others joy.”
He then addressed one of the key criticisms about his past travels to the U.S.:
I also want to clear something up, as people who follow me on Instagram already know.
I’ve been to the United States before. This is not my first visit, and I’ve never claimed that it was. The last time I was here was in January 2022, when I visited New York and Philadelphia.
A lot of people shared my Raising Cane’s post from November 2025 to make it look like I was secretly American. That post wasn’t from the United States, it was from my trip to Saudi Arabia.
This is my first time back in the U.S. in more than four years, and apart from Boston, I’d never visited any of the places we’ve been to on this trip before. That’s probably why many people assumed it was our first time in America, because for all of these places, it actually was.
And let me tell you, Ohio and Alabama are very different from New York City or Los Angeles.
Freddy posted a few other updates Monday as he drove through Tennessee and North Carolina.
The World Cup semi-finals start Tuesday with France and Spain battling it out in Dallas, then England and Argentina face off in Atlanta on Wednesday. A third place play-off is scheduled for Saturday, July 18 in Miami and the final game for the coveted trophy will be Sunday, July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
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