During the World Cup, a college town in central Kansas called Lawrence — population around 96,000 — took on a new identity: home to Algeria’s national team.
Algeria set up its World Cup base camp here, and the whole town simply adopted the North African side as its own. Downtown filled with Algeria’s green, white and red flags, residents threw watch party after watch party, and locals even learned the team’s chants.
The funniest and most charming part: the University of Kansas (KU) has a legendary campus cheer, “Rock Chalk Jayhawk.” This time everyone rewrote the words and shouted “Rock Chalk Algeria.” The school’s marching band played the Algerian national anthem, and local artist Stan Herd used natural, organic materials — plants and soil — to “grow” a giant Algerian flag on the campus lawn.
Algeria’s head coach, Vladimir Petkovic, told reporters the team could feel the love. “We’ve had some real positive vibes,” he said — not just from local Algerians, but from born-and-raised Americans who jumped in to cheer too.
One team, one unfamiliar small town, brought together by the World Cup. Some are calling it the most unexpected love story of this tournament. That’s the magic of football, really — it can turn two places that have nothing to do with each other into one big family.
Sources: ABC News / Good Morning America, “Kansas town adopts Algerian team during World Cup” (link); KCUR (NPR), “Lawrence is now ‘Little Algeria’ for the World Cup,” 24 June 2026 (link); Reuters video report.
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