Greg Shapiro in VOLKSKRANT on WORLD CUP USA 2026
by Willem Vissers 11 June, 2026 (translated from Dutch by Google / Shapiro)
Name: Greg Shapiro (58).
Residence: Amsterdam.
Profession: Comedian.
“At home, my children sometimes say: ‘oh dad, please stop imitating Donald Trump for a moment.’ I practice out of habit. Ugh, it’s so hard to avoid jokes about Trump. I mean, what about the supporters of the Dutch national team: by all means, let them travel en masse to the World Cup, so the ICE agents can arrest them. Otherwise, ICE won’t meet their quotas for locking up immigrants.”
[26,110. The Netherlands has 26,110 inhabitants with American nationality.]
“I came to the Netherlands in 1994 [when the USA also hosted the World Cup] to work with the comedy group Boom Chicago, and I ended up staying. Our shows were getting full houses. At first mainly with American tourists, then increasingly with Dutch visitors. I eventually learned the Dutch language. About once a year I go back to America. No, I am not really afraid that they will open my phone and think: ‘Uh-oh, that’s Greg Shapiro, with all his jokes about Trump.’”
“I’ve had my Dutch passport since 2004. And yes, I got it during the days of Rita Verdonk. I hope the Netherlands performs well in 2026. I know how big football is here in the Netherlands: from World Cup 1974; then the Ajax of 1995 in the Champions League – when I had just moved here; and from the exciting final of 2010 against Spain. From America, I mainly miss the extremes. I live next to a
Russian who always says: what an excitable people you are. That’s it: with Americans it’s
just as if they’re constantly on ecstasy, and Russians on vodka. I remember
watching the Netherlands vs. United States match at the previous World Cup in a sports bar in America. There was an American standing there actually screaming at the screen: ‘we have to score a goal NOW.’
Now. As if you have a right to a goal just for being American.”
Read the article in Dutch here:
https://www.volkskrant.nl/kijkverder/v/2026/wk-2026-voetbal-nederland-nationaliteiten~v3046199/
