Waltham kids meet French national soccer players at Bentley practice

As the host of one of the top-ranked soccer teams in the world, Waltham was pulled temporarily into the global spotlight — and its residents into the thick of the excitement for the FIFA World Cup.

Some of Waltham’s young soccer players got swept into the center of the action last week, when 10 Waltham Youth Soccer League players got an opportunity to see the French national soccer team at a Friday practice at Bentley University.

This was the French team’s only practice open to the public while at Bentley, their temporary home during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Even in 90-plus degree weather, the bleachers were packed with fans. Other young soccer players — including two kids who wrote to Mayor Jeannette A. McCarthy’s office about their love of the French team — Bentley community members, friends of sponsors, local officials and sports journalists from around the world cheered on the French team and waved little French flags.

The practice was held after a soccer clinic run by Massachusetts Youth Soccer, the organization that coordinates WYS’ tournaments. Young soccer players from around the state conducted their own practice while French team members and Gov. Maura Healey talked to sports journalists from around the world about hopes for the team — and the state — in the upcoming World Cup.

Waltham youth on the pitch

Peter Fekkes, a coach at WYS, said the organization received a last-minute offer to send 10 players and a handful of coaches to the event as an opportunity to practice with other youth from across the state, meet the French team and watch them play.

Members of Waltham’s boys and girls youth soccer teams spread across one of Bentley’s practice fields to scrimmage, teach each other trick shots and chat with soccer players from other districts. 

Many of the WYS players had been following the French team’s progress, and eagerly listed French players they hoped to see on the pitch. Some said they’d be looking to the French team for ways to better their own skills, from practice exercises to footwork to finding better opportunities to take shots at the net.

The Waltham players were also excited to meet new players from across the state and play soccer with them: “Some of these people may be better at soccer, and [it’s] a nice challenge,” said Harley, one of the players from WYS.

Fekkes said around 1,000 students from pre-K to eighth grade participate in Waltham Youth Soccer. He said kids in the program have been feeling the hype for the World Cup, cheering for teams from all around the world. 

Tom Geis, the technical director of Massachusetts Youth Soccer, said this is only one of a series of youth events the organization is holding in honor of FIFA, encouraging young soccer fans to come to the kid-friendly watch parties they’ll be holding around the state.

A draw to Waltham

Gov. Healey welcomed the players onto the field and thanked them for choosing Bentley — and the Boston area — as their temporary home base, proclaiming the area “the number one sports town and sports state in the great United States.”

Fans in the bleachers — some from the Bentley community, some from Greater Boston and some who travelled across state or country lines to get there — cheered as the French team came out, first for stretches, then for their own scrimmage matches that eventually turned into scoring practice. Every time a player made a goal, the bleachers roared with French cheers.

“I honestly think it’s just kind of surreal, seeing people playing at the highest level on the field we play at every single day in the fall,” said Rachel Abbott, a member of the Bentley’s women’s soccer team, who showed up to watch the practice.

Traditionally, soccer has found relatively fewer fans around Boston compared to other sports — so playing host to one of the largest sporting events in the world is a particularly exciting chance for many local soccer fans to give their sport and their fan communities a moment to shine. 

One New England College soccer player who came to the practice said he hoped Haiti’s participation in this year’s world cup would bring the Boston Haitian community together, as a bonding opportunity in the face of fears around increased federal immigration arrests.

Geis said the visibility of soccer in the U.S. has also grown significantly since the last time the country hosted the FIFA World Cup in 1994, and he has been delighted to see all the excitement around the tournament.

“I think that’s [what’s] really cool about the World Cup, is you just see all the departments and all the communities come together,” he said. “You don’t even see this for the Super Bowl!”

A last-minute scramble to prepare

The announcement that the French team was practicing at Bentley came a couple of months ago, after previous reports that they might be practicing at another university.

“The way it happened was not traditional,” said Bentley’s Director of Athletics Vaughn Williams. “[But] we knew that we were great partners, and it’s great for the community.”

Abbott said there have been some disruptions to Bentley’s summer practice as a result of the French team’s arrival — her own soccer team isn’t able to use the university’s main soccer pitch — but that was a trade she was willing to make.