Reid Pereira won the Coca‑Cola FIFA World Cup 26 Flag Bearer Sweepstakes. His father, Steve Pereira, our station manager at found out about the contest after buying a bottle of Coke.
Steve said “for two weeks I was buying Coke products and entering, and then I was reading the fine print again just to make sure this was a legit and legitimate contest. And then I found at the very bottom and the really fine print, no purchase necessary”.
Reid got the opportunity to hold the Turkish flag for the opening ceremony between of the Turkey versus Australia match.
He didn’t expect himself to win as he comes from a small town and had expected someone from a big city to win the competition.
He added, “When I walked out, I found out I was really nervous. I walked out with the flag. I look up and I see like 50,000 people looking down at the field”.
For Steve, it was a proud and emotional moment. he said, “It was really cool and emotional to see, you know, your son on the pitch of an international like the biggest sporting event in the world”.
When Reid was visible on TV, many of Steve’s family members texted him upon seeing him. Steve said “The camera was shooting right towards Reid, so he should be on TV. And then my phone starts blowing up. Everybody’s texting me. “I just saw Reid on TV and on TSN”. And so and they’re sending me screenshots. So it was really cool.”
Reid got a $500 Visa Card for travel, merchandise from Coca-Cola and Adidas, an official banner of the game and a certificate signed by the general manager of Coca-Cola, Daria Makhoukova.
As the match was held in Vancouver, Steve and Reid also got to experience the Canada vs Qatar game’s Voyageurs outside of the stadium.
Reid described his experience on watching the game. “I’m just seeing my seat, watching the game, and the ball rolling runs into the net, and the whole tower stands up and starts shouting, let’s go, Canada! And then, we have everyone high fiving each other, patting each other on the back. It was fun!”
Steve also added “It was it’s crazy. Every time they scored, everybody was up hugging, high fiving your neighbors. You didn’t know who these people are, but everybody was together and patting each other on the back. And just everybody was just one. It was it was really amazing”.