How this soccer creator is cashing in on World Cup hype (without ever going pro)

Kevin DeCristoforo didn’t make it to the pros—and that’s exactly the point. The 21-year-old college student turned soccer creator built his following on relatable, not aspirational, content: the jokes, the gear, the “what position do you play based on your jersey number” bits that any weekend-league player recognizes instantly.

With World Cup hype compounding by the week, Kevin spoke with Alyssa Meyers about why brands are suddenly DMing a creator who never played D1, what makes a soccer partnership actually land, and why he’s betting the fandom outlasts the tournament.

Takeaways:

• Relatability beats highlight reels. Kevin’s content works because he’s open about never going pro—leaning into humor and personality instead of skill, which he says is what separates breakout soccer creators from everyone else posting drills.
• Brand interest is broadening fast. Beyond obvious soccer sponsors, Kevin’s seeing inbound from categories that have nothing to do with the sport—he name-checked Dove and Ray-Ban Meta as standout partnerships, with Adidas as his dream collab.
• Creators are doing the trust-building advertisers used to. Kevin frames himself as part of a new advertising model: familiar faces people see on repeat build the kind of trust that turns a recommendation into a purchase.
• The World Cup is a launchpad, not the ceiling. Kevin expects U.S. interest in soccer to stick around post-tournament, and plans to shift from World Cup-specific content into broader soccer lifestyle content to keep the audience engaged.

Watch the episode

Introduction: Creating relatable content

Alyssa: Hi, welcome to this special interview with Marketing Brew. My name is Alyssa Meyers. I’m a senior reporter here and I am joined by…

Kevin: Kevin DeCristoforo.

Alyssa: Hey Kevin, thanks for doing this.

Kevin: Of course, of course.

Alyssa: Tell us a little bit, first of all, about you and the kinds of content that you create.

Kevin: So about a year ago I started creating content and my friend told me to start doing it. I just started posting videos just about myself and then slowly started figuring it out my way and now I’ve started diving into soccer content within the past few months and saw a lot of success with it.

And ever since then I just started sticking with it, honestly. And especially with the World Cup, I just want to keep leveraging that and keep growing hopefully.

Alyssa: Love it. How’d you get into soccer? Are you a fan? Are you a player?

Kevin: Yeah, so I’ve been playing for a decent amount of time. It’s always been a part of who I am and my friend who actually told me to start creating content, he told me to start posting soccer content because growing up I’ve always been knowing as the soccer kid.

Once I saw the success with it, how people relate to my story as well. I just like, you know what, let me just continue to do it. Why not? And it’s something I love, I enjoy. I’ve always loved it growing up and so why not do it as a 21 year old college student?

Alyssa: Amazing job. What kind of stuff really performs well for you with the soccer content? Is it like videos of you playing? Is it watching recaps, advice? What kind of stuff?

Kevin: So I wasn’t always the best player. So I kind of just want to make my content relatable and whether through my story or just being funny and trying to show my humor and personality online because I think I see these other creators online that did soccer content growing up.

They always show their personality very well so I just want to be able to be transparent with my audience. Just like show my personality, be natural or authentic on camera as well. Yeah.

Alyssa: I love that. The videos that’s like the ones of like you know it’s a soccer player and you know what position they play because of X, Y, Z.

Kevin: Yeah. I can’t give advice. I didn’t make it to the pros. I didn’t make it division one. So I’m just like, you know what? Why not just be funny about it? You know?

Alyssa: I love that. Relatable. Me neither. I’ve played my whole life as well, but my current top status is in the NYC Footy Rec League. So that’s all I’ve got.

Kevin: You see with soccer too. Everyone plays it. So it’s just a huge community to tap into. So I was just like, you know what? Why not do it as well?

Alyssa: That’s such a good point that it’s a sport that’s very accessible, right? A lot of people play, probably a lot of people who watch your videos have played themselves to some extent.

Do you think about that when you’re creating content and sort of shape your content with this idea that this is probably people who are not just fans of soccer, but maybe people who have kicked around at least a little bit?

Kevin: Yeah, of course. And I think especially within this past year, there’s other creators that are just on different levels that have tapped into soccer and have gathered a worldwide community.

Creating World Cup content

Alyssa: I want to shift to some World Cup stuff a little bit because you mentioned really starting to blow up and create stuff this year and months leading up to the World Cup. Have you seen interest, do you think, in your content tied to the fact that people are getting excited about the World Cup?

Kevin: I see the views just slowly getting more and more and more. So I think the World Cup hype is just building and compounding. Everyone in the US has its eyes on it and no matter what sport you play, what sport you watch, I think everyone’s going to be watching it because especially New York too. Oh my gosh. So many different communities and backgrounds and cultures. No matter where you’re from, I think everyone’s just going to be watching it.

Alyssa: It’s going to be awesome.

Kevin: Yeah. I’m really excited for it.

Alyssa: How do you work World Cup into your content? Is it talking about specific players or how do you naturally bring it up?

Kevin: So there’s like different series I’m doing, I guess you can say there’s certain like the funny, relatable stuff. I do it based on like different categories of soccer, for example, like the team you support or like the players that your favorite player, even the number you wore growing up. It’s like very specific.

But with the World Cup, I think there’s just so many different niches now you can go into. I see all these different small businesses getting into like promoting their World Cup, even just restaurants or just the hospitality space as well. Just recording your World Cup experience through your lens is going to be big. So I haven’t really gone specifically into just the World Cup. I just want to talk about soccer as a whole almost.

World Cup brand deals

Alyssa: Got it. Yeah. That makes sense. And it’s obviously super related. You mentioned sort of like small businesses, even obviously bigger brands getting into soccer, World Cup marketing, that sort of thing. Have you had brand deals come in, interested in working with you from maybe some of these soccer sponsors?

Kevin: Yeah. It’s definitely picked up a lot more, especially with these past few months as well, but it’s like all over the place. These brands that you wouldn’t even expect wanting to collaborate with a small soccer creator like me, it opens the doors for me and it’s just endless of opportunities.

I think just for any soccer creator or any creator out there as a whole, you just never know what brand will want to partner with you.

Alyssa: Does one come to mind, like a brand deal that you’ve done, content you’ve created with a brand that you really enjoyed?

Kevin: Dove. Dove Medicare.That was a good one. And then I think my favorite one is going to be Ray Band Meta.

Alyssa: So cool.

Kevin: Which was like cool because I get the glasses as well and get to just show my POV in a natural way, I guess.

Audience interest post-World Cup

Alyssa: I wonder too how you’re thinking about going forward. We’re going to have the World Cup all this hype. I’m sure your follower count and brand deals will keep growing through that. Do you think about afterwards, the fandom around soccer, how you’re going to sort of keep this going? Do you think people are still going to be interested?

Kevin: Yeah, I think so. I mean, no matter what, soccer is just like huge sport. I mean the last World Cup there was three or four billion viewers or literally half of the world population was watching that one game.

So I think no matter what, it’s just such a huge community to tap into. But after the World Cup, I even think that, like I said, Americans, most people don’t watch soccer.

So I think even after watching the World Cup, we’re really feeling the World Cup experience and culture that people will start liking soccer a lot more and I think I will still carry it on afterwards, but maybe more of like a lifestyle/soccer content I would say.

Alyssa: I like that.

Kevin: Yeah.

How creators create soccer fandom in the US

Alyssa: Do you think that in this whole ecosystem, I feel like we’re talking about soccer up to FIFA teams, MLS, brand sponsors, creators are a big part of that, right? People who post online, like that’s how you drive fandom to a certain extent.

How do you see your role in other sort of soccer creators like you in developing fandom in the US?

Kevin: I think it’s just that community engagement. I think as a viewer, you trust people you see on a frequent basis. And if you’re a familiar face, keep popping up on someone’s feed, you build trust in a certain way and like that community just builds, especially through engagement.

I think that’s just the new way of advertising too, and if you’re able to build that connection with someone from the screen, people are going to want to buy the product that your favorite creator’s using or they’re recommending and I think that’s just the new way of advertising as well.

A dream brand deal

Alyssa: Well said. And I think a perfect transition to the last thing I want to ask you, which is kind of a shoot your shot about brand deals. If there’s like a company or a type of company that you would love to work with or you’d love to even just see more of in soccer.

Kevin: Ooh, a dream brand. I would say Adidas.

Alyssa: Oh, really?

Kevin: I would love to do Adidas. I wear their shoes all the time. I wear the sambas all the time. I think I’ve put about half a million steps in those shoes. So I think they have rips in them, they have terrorism, I play soccer in them.

I just, that’s like the one brand I would love to team up with. And I see a bunch of people wearing Sambas too and it’s an Adidas jerseys all, that would be a dream, honestly.

Alyssa: Oh, they’re such a soccer brand. I feel like I’m normally a Nike girl like running and everything, but my cleats have always been Adidas.

Kevin: Yeah. I don’t know. It just has that classic feel to them too. Even the clothes that they’re starting to put out there for soccer specifically with the World Cup, it aligns perfectly with what I would want my dream brand to be.

Alyssa: They do good content too. Did you see their ad this week I think went to the challenge? With Timothée Chalamet and Trinity Rodman. Love her.

Kevin: I reposted that. I was like, wow, that’s just like...It felt like a movie, honestly.

Alyssa: Maybe that’ll be you one day.

Kevin: Hopefully. Fingers crossed, fingers crossed, honestly.

Alyssa: Well, I think I’ll leave it at that. Thank you so much for answering all my questions.

Kevin: Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me.