The 2018 FIFA World Cup is under way in Russia.

And some Stamps players will be keeping close tabs on the tournament’s happenings.

“I don’t get to watch soccer as much as I used to, but when the World Cup comes on I’ll catch the games for sure,” said kicker Rene Paredes. “I’m a huge fan of soccer.”

He’s not the only footie fanatic on the team, either.

Tunde Adeleke, Royce Metchie, Ante Milanovic-Litre, and James Vaughters are also soccer enthusiasts.

For Vaughters though, his relationship with the ‘other’ type of football only began recently.

“I’m a growing soccer fan,” he said. “I just got into it during the last World Cup in 2014 when [United States keeper] Tim Howard was making all of those saves and the USA was going deep.”

However, with the USA failing to qualify for the tournament this time around, he’s forced to find a new squad to root for.

“I just pick a team with the most players that I like, so I’m going with France this year,” admitted Vaughters.

While Vaughters may not be able to cheer for his home country, Milanovic-Litre is beyond excited to cheer on his beloved Croatian team.

The young man, a dual-citizen of Canada and Croatia, is ready to celebrate his country’s successes and hopefully watch them hoist the championship trophy.

“Fan is an understatement,” stated Milanovic-Litre. “It’s part of our pulse, especially at this time of year.

“If I wasn’t playing, I’d be back in Vancouver in the Croatian centre with a few thousand other Croatian-Canadians watching the game and when we win – which will happen – we’d go down the streets with flags and honking our horns. I’d like to do that here, too.”

Milanovic-Litre’s Croatian squad will take on Nigeria this Saturday.

There might be some inter-teammate rivalry as both Adeleke and Metchie are cheering for the Nigerian team.

“I’m not a huge soccer fan, but when it comes to the World Cup and representing your country, you always go for it,” said Adeleke of rooting for Nigeria. “It sucks that we play on the day of our first game, but I’m always going for Nigeria. I hope we win it all.”

While both Adeleke and Metchie may not be able to watch the game, they know their fathers will be in front of a TV cheering on the home team.

“My dad is a huge fan,” Adeleke said. “He’ll probably be at a few games and watching every game. Everyone else in my family will be watching, too.”

“My dad’s side back home, they’re big fans, and I have a lot of family back in Nigeria, so they’ll be watching,” added Metchie.

For Paredes, he’ll be more interested in the Peru-Denmark game.

“I’m cheering from Peru, my background is from there,” he said. “I was born in Venezuela, but most of my family is from Peru, so I’ll be cheering for them.”

As one of the more prominent soccer fans on the Stamps roster, Paredes is known for his affinity for FC Barcelona.

So he’s got more than one horse in this race.

“I’m a big Messi fan, so I’ll be cheering for Argentina,” he said.

With Russia being nine hours ahead of Calgary, it makes watching all of the games more difficult.

And given the already busy schedule for the athletes, they may not get a chance to watch as much as they’d like.

“I might be able to watch the highlights,” said Vaughters. “I looked at the times and the games are coming on at like 6 a.m., 7 a.m., or noon, so I’ll miss a lot of it. But I’m excited to watch the highlights, it’ll be interesting to see who pulls it out.”

“With the games in Russia and everything, I’ll just have to watch it after – hopefully watching wins,” said Adeleke.