Why FIFA and TikTok Are Betting on Football Creators Like Lirian Santos. Full Q&A.
The 2026 World Cup is showing how football’s biggest institutions now rely on creators to shape culture around the game.
A full Q&A with Lirian follows below this article. Enjoy!
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will likely be the first men’s tournament in which many younger fans experience large parts of it through creators before broadcasters.
That shift has been building for years, though football institutions were slower to accept it because traditional football media still held most of the authority, access, and distribution power in the sport. Broadcasters controlled the big moments and the after-match opinions, while creators largely existed around the edges, producing reaction clips, edits, and fan content that wasn’t always taken as seriously in the boardrooms.
That balance has changed over the last few years, as clubs, brands, and tournaments now build creator distribution into campaigns and event coverage from the beginning, rather than treating it as secondary amplification after launch. You can see it in the way clubs now structure media days, the way brands build campaigns around creator distribution from the start, and the way tournaments increasingly want creators inside the event rather than reacting from outside it.
The football industry spent years treating creators as amplification tools, but the general understanding now is that younger audiences often experience football through creators first, particularly on social media, where personality shapes trust.
That’s part of why FIFA and TikTok recently launched their FIFA World Cup 2026 Creator Correspondents programme, selecting creators from around the world to help tell the story of the tournament across the platform. One of the UK names selected was Lirian Santos, whose rise over the last few years says a lot about where football culture is moving.
Modern football needs people capable of translating the emotional side of the sport across platforms where younger audiences spend their time, because the game now exists across far more environments than it did even ten years ago. The match still matters most, and live football remains the centre of everything, but the emotional experience around the sport now stretches across social clips, fashion, music, fan culture, player personality, and creator storytelling in ways that traditional football media often struggles to capture naturally.
That’s where creators like Santos have become commercially and culturally valuable to football organisations trying to reach younger audiences in ways that still feel natural to the sport, because they often make football feel human in environments where the sport can otherwise become heavily commercialised, media-trained, and over-produced.
The interesting thing about Santos is that her work rarely feels built around trying to “go viral”, even though the numbers often follow. There’s a noticeable difference between creators who chase football virality through controversial podcast takes and those who genuinely understand football culture emotionally, because the latter usually create content that feels more relaxed, more natural, and more recognisable to actual football fans. That instinct for Lirian comes from her own relationship with the game.
Born in Bahia, Brazil, and later moving to North London as a child, Santos describes herself as having “two footballing souls”, shaped by Brazilian and British football cultures, which are emotionally and stylistically very different.
“Growing up in London taught me to love the grit of football,” she tells me. “But being from Brazil also gave me that love for flair, rhythm and creativity because, to me, football is an art.”
A lot of football content has become built around outrage cycles, transfer reactions, tribal arguments, and algorithmic volume because those formats perform consistently across platforms. Santos deliberately moved in another direction.
“At the time, I felt like there wasn’t enough focus on enjoyment,” she says when explaining why she started creating football content. “I wanted to bring that Joga Bonito energy back.”
That answer probably explains why her work has travelled beyond traditional football audiences.
The football still sits at the centre, the skills, movement, energy, and personality all matter heavily in her content, but the presentation feels closer to culture than conventional football media. The edits are sharp, the pacing is different, and the storytelling feels built around feeling rather than information delivery.
That’s important because football organisations need creators who can operate in those spaces naturally, especially heading into a World Cup being hosted in North America, where the sport continues growing through culture as much as competition.
The football audience in the United States doesn’t always enter through the same pathways as Europe or South America. A lot of younger fans discover football through clips, fashion collaborations, player personalities, gaming culture, or social media moments long before they sit through a full ninety-minute match, and the industry understands that now, which is why you can already see major tournaments adapting through the way events are packaged visually, distributed socially, and positioned culturally across platforms where younger audiences spend most of their time.
That shift doesn’t mean creator work suddenly becomes easier, and one of the more revealing parts of speaking with Santos was hearing how much elite football creator work still depends on instinct and human connection rather than production scale.
“Sometimes you get less than five minutes with a top player,” she says. “If you can break the ice and create a real human moment, everything changes.”
That probably explains why the best football creator content often feels simple on the surface, because viewers mainly see the final clip rather than the environment around it. What looks spontaneous usually depends on creators being able to build trust quickly inside highly controlled spaces where players are constantly being filmed, marketed, and managed.
Santos says she deliberately leaves room for spontaneity because “that’s where the best magic happens”, which reflects a wider shift happening across sports media generally, where audiences increasingly respond to moments that feel emotionally real rather than heavily polished, while overly structured content often starts to feel corporate very quickly.
That’s partly why creators are becoming central to major tournaments: while the World Cup will always belong to the players, matches, and national identities involved, the storytelling layer surrounding those moments is increasingly shared by creators who can make audiences feel closer to what’s happening in real time.
And heading into the 2026 edition of the World Cup, football’s biggest institutions are no longer viewing creators as people sitting outside the sport looking in, because they understand how creators can help shape the tournament experience from the inside.
Lirian Santos will be in the United States throughout the 2026 FIFA World Cup, working across creator-led football and culture projects connected to the tournament. For partnership enquiries, Contact.
Full Q&A with Lirian Santos.
Where did your love for football come from, was it through family, friends, or another introduction?
Ronaldinho was definitely one of my earliest inspirations. The joy, flair, and creativity he brought to football caught my attention from a young age. Beyond that, supporting Brazil was a huge part of my family culture growing up. We didn’t really watch much Premier League football or anything like that.
For us, it was all about Brazil. World Cups, Copa América, even friendlies, those moments were a big part of family life. It never felt like just a sport, it felt connected to our heritage and the way we celebrated who we are. That passion was passed down through generations and became a big part of my identity from a very young age.
Your heritage is a blend of two very different cultures, born in Bahia, Brazil, and growing up in North London. How does that shape you as a football fan?
Yeah, I was born in Bahia, Brazil, and moved to London when I was about three, so there’s definitely a mad mix going on there. It shaped everything about how I see the game.
Growing up in London taught me to love the grit of football, that drive and never-give-up mentality that you don’t always see as much in Brazilian football. But being from Brazil also gave me a love for flair, rhythm, and creativity because, to me, football is an art.
Having both sides has made me appreciate different parts of the game. The beauty of skills and expression, but also the strength that comes from hustle. It’s basically like having two footballing souls.
When you look back at how you started creating around football, what were you seeing in the space that felt missing at the time?
At the time, I felt like there wasn’t enough focus on enjoyment, on the pure happiness football brings. I wanted to bring that Joga Bonito energy back, the joy and creativity, because I felt like that was missing. That’s a big reason why I started Brazilian Style.
But it was also about representation for women. The space felt very limited. Growing up, I loved football, but I never really thought there was an opportunity there for me professionally. That was definitely missing too.
My goal was to show young girls that football doesn’t just bring happiness, it can also open doors and create careers. I wanted women to see that we can have a really strong presence in football.
There are a lot of football creators now, but not all feel as embedded in the culture as you do. What do you think separates someone who covers football from someone who feels part of it?
For me, it comes down to genuinely living and understanding the culture, not just creating around moments because they’re trending.
Football is emotional. It’s community, identity, family, memories. If you really understand that, it changes the way you create content because you’re not just documenting football, you’re contributing to the feeling around it.
I think audiences can tell the difference between someone who truly loves the culture and someone who’s just posting for engagement.
How would you describe your approach to football content in one sentence, if someone had never seen your work?
Putting the beautiful back into the beautiful game and reminding people that football should be about joy and creativity.
When you’re working on content and collaborations, what is your creative process when thinking of ideas?
For me, it always starts with emotion. I think about how I can make people feel something.
Inspiration usually comes from moments, maybe a goal, maybe even just a casual conversation with a player. Then I think about how to blend football with storytelling in a way that feels fun, authentic, and visually appealing.
My process is a mix of planning and spontaneity. I don’t like over-planning because when things become too structured, especially when working with players, you lose some of the natural interaction and human connection.
I like leaving room for things to happen naturally because that’s usually where the best moments come from. But at the same time, I still want enough structure so everything doesn’t feel chaotic.
Most importantly, the content has to feel true to me. I can’t pretend to be something I’m not, so I always want my personality and energy to come through naturally.
What makes a piece of football content feel right to you? How do you decide what goes onto the feed and what doesn’t?
For me, it’s about balance. The football has to shine, the skills, the technical side, everything happening on the pitch, but the personality and energy behind it matter just as much.
I want people to appreciate the football itself, but also the aesthetic, the editing, and the storytelling. When all of those things click together, that’s when it feels right.
That combination creates engagement that goes beyond football because it can connect with people who might appreciate the visuals, the story, or the creativity, even if they’re not hardcore football fans.
Ultimately, it’s about presenting football in a way that feels authentic, relatable, and beautiful.
You’ve worked across different environments, including brand and player collaborations, and major events. What’s something about those spaces that people on the outside don’t fully understand?
A lot of people don’t realise how much pressure there can be behind the scenes. Sometimes you get less than five minutes with a top player, so everything becomes really intense very quickly.
That’s why connection matters so much. If you can break the ice and create a real human moment, everything changes. The player relaxes, the content becomes more natural, and suddenly you’re not just filming something, you’ve actually captured an experience.
I think too many people over-plan and forget that spontaneity is where the best magic happens. Of course preparation matters, you should know what you’re there to achieve, but once you create that genuine connection, everything flows naturally.
That human energy is the key. When people connect first, the football content always looks and feels better.
What does a good collaboration look like from your side, whether that’s with a brand or a club?
A good collaboration is when both sides genuinely understand each other creatively and there’s trust involved.
The best partnerships are the ones where you’re given room to bring your own personality and ideas into the project instead of feeling like you’re just there to deliver something scripted.
I think audiences are very smart now. They can tell when something feels forced. So the best collaborations are the ones that feel natural, where the football culture, the storytelling, and the brand all fit together properly.
How do you see the role of a football creator evolving over the next few years?
I think it’s becoming bigger than just showcasing football. Creators now have to be storytellers and community builders as well.
The next phase is about merging creativity, culture, and purpose, showing football’s impact beyond the pitch. I think we’ll see even more crossover between sport, fashion, music, and social change.
Football is already the biggest sport in the world, but having the World Cup in the US opens the game up even more globally. That creates opportunities for football culture to connect with a lot of different spaces.
Creators are going to have to do a bit of everything now.
You have the opportunity to create your own career path. Can you share some of your big goals?
One of my biggest goals is to create a charity that connects people through football.
To me, football is a universal language. No matter where people are from, Morocco, Brazil, England, wherever, as soon as a football comes out, everybody understands each other instantly.
I want to use football to reach communities around the world and show that the game can be a bridge for learning, growth, and hope. That’s something I want to reflect through the content I create as well.
With the World Cup coming up, how are you thinking about that moment from a content perspective?
I feel like the World Cup is the perfect stage to capture pure emotion, the highs, the heartbreaks, everything.
At the last World Cup, I was presenting and the emotions were so raw. I remember literally crying before filming one scene after Brazil got knocked out, so I know how powerful those moments can be.
The stories go far beyond football itself. From a content perspective, I want to focus on connection, the stories of fans, culture, fashion, and everything that makes football more than just a game.
It’s not only about who wins. It’s about showing how deeply football affects people globally and how it brings people together from all over the world.
Everything I do always comes back to skills, joy, and happiness, so that’s the energy I want to bring into the World Cup as well.
The interesting part about football’s creator economy right now is that the role itself has become much broader than just posting content around matches. Clubs, brands, tournaments, and platforms increasingly need creators who can translate the atmosphere, emotion, and culture surrounding football in ways that feel natural to younger audiences, especially ahead of a World Cup that will likely generate more creator-led storytelling than any tournament before it
For Lirian Santos World Cup partnership enquiries, Contact.
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