GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (May 22, 2014) — A lucky boy in west Michigan will be traveling to South America in a couple weeks to see the world’s best soccer teams compete for the World Cup in Brazil. The trip is free and paid for by McDonald’s.
The fast food restaurant picked 26 young soccer fans, between the ages of 6 and 10 to go on the trip of a lifetime.
FOX 17 cameras were rolling as 7-year-old Isaiah Tolan thought all he was doing was blowing out the candles on his birthday cake, but instead he got the big birthday surprise.
Isaiah also gets to walk onto the field with a member of the US Men’s National Soccer Team.
The world soccer championship only takes place every four years, with the winning team taking home a grand prize of $35 million dollars.
Isaiah and his father Aaron will head south to Brazil on June 12th, where they will experience all the World Cup festivities for a week.
“We are great big soccer fans. I played soccer in college and he’s still leaning to he a soccer fan. He doesn’t remember the World Cup since he was three the last time. We’ve been talking it up and we are excited about cheering on team USA in the World Cup,” said Aaron Tolan.
There were three million tickets initially up for grabs to attent a total of 64 matches.
Isaiah’s father Aaron said that its been difficult not letting the surprise out of the bag.
“Multiple times I wanted to just bust out and tell him about it. It’s been an intention effort to not leak it out,” said Tolan.
Isaiah isn’t just getting a free trip. He’s also won a $1 thousand dollar grant to give to any west Michigan soccer organization of his choice.
