And Just Like That… The Last Dance
And just like that, we reached the final month of the 26th edition of the FIFA Master.
July brought Final Project deadlines, World Cup watch parties, birthday celebrations, daily beach volleyball, a few “last dances” on the football pitch and, slowly but surely, a growing number of lasts that nobody was quite ready to acknowledge.
The month kicked off with the World Cup Round of 32 and a highly anticipated clash within the class: the Habibis’ Pharaohs against Xav’s Socceroos, conveniently scheduled on Xav’s birthday. Unfortunately, the Socceroos did not deliver the birthday present he had hoped for, but the class made up for it with a surprise celebration and watch party. From there, World Cup fever took over, with Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Egypt, France, Morocco, USA and several other classmates’ nations creating plenty of friendly rivalries along the way. Somewhere between all the football, we also celebrated the final official birthday of our FIFA Master year, and there could hardly have been a more fitting way to celebrate our one and only New Yorker, Ashley, than with an American-themed party.
But eventually, the celebrations had to make room for our Final Project submissions. Suddenly, July became very real. Reports had to be finalized, executive summaries perfected, and presentations rehearsed and rehearsed again.
With the reports finally submitted and presentation day still ahead, the class found a few precious opportunities to simply be together. Families began arriving in Neuchâtel, turning this final chapter into something even more special as the people who had supported us from afar finally became part of the world they had heard so much about.
We gathered to watch the World Cup final, with almost unanimous support for Spain, with the notable exception of Paolo, whose Italian identity appeared to experience a temporary Argentinian transformation. The World Cup final also crowned a champion much closer to home, as Nata’s sweepstake team took the title. In true Nata fashion, the winnings didn’t stay in his pocket for long: he generously reinvested them into the 26th edition, treating the last few survivors in Neuchâtel to one final barbecue, a pretty good return on investment “ROI” for the rest of us. Or, as the man himself would famously say: Oldest in the class, most generous at heart.
We squeezed in one final football match, this time with families watching from the sidelines. And then came perhaps one of the most emotional evenings of the year. For three hours, Léonie took us back to the beginning. Through a movie she had quietly put together documenting our entire ten months adventure, we watched ourselves arrive in Leicester as strangers, move to Milan, settle into Neuchâtel, travel, study, play football, celebrate birthdays, run races, dance, laugh and become the family sitting together in that room. There were plenty of laughs, but by the end, there were also very few dry eyes. After a year of Léonie’s famous birthday cakes, she somehow managed to give us one final gift, and perhaps the sweetest one of all.
Then, just like that, Final Projects presentation day arrived. What began as one of the most stressful evenings of the year turned into one of its proudest days. After months of research, discussions, disagreements, late nights and countless revisions, each group stood in front of the room and presented the work that had defined the final stage of the FIFA Master. With friends and families there to witness it, the relief when the final presentation ended was difficult to describe. Ten months of studying across three countries had come down to this moment.
And then there was only one thing left to do: graduate. Graduation day began at the Château de Neuchâtel, where we finally received our diplomas from class patron Pierre Ducrey, IOC Sports Director and a proud FIFA Master alumnus himself. It was one of those moments that had felt so far away when we first arrived in Leicester and suddenly, our names were being called. The ceremony also came with a few final moments of recognition. Luca was named valedictorian of the 26th edition, a well-deserved achievement for someone who consistently raised the bar throughout the year. Guillermo, Ale, Tamu and, Abdel Malik famously known as GATA, also had one more reason to celebrate when their Final Project group was awarded best presentation, a rewarding recognition that crowned months of hard work, dedication, and teamwork in the best possible way.
The celebrations continued with a beautiful lakefront dinner at Café des Amis, thoughtfully organized by our graduation committee Lalaina, Ashley, Zack, Kevin and Guillermo. And because apparently the goal of the final week was to make everyone cry as many times as possible, the evening came with a few surprises. Most touching was a video featuring messages from parents and family members who could not be there in person, bringing a little piece of home into the room. There were speeches, laughter, tears, hugs and countless photos. And for those who still had some energy left in the tank after ten months of FIFA Master life, the night was far from over.
But perhaps the hardest part came afterwards... One by one, the suitcases reappeared. Every day became someone’s last day. One last coffee. One last lake swim. One last dinner. One last BBQ. One last hug before someone boarded a train or headed to the airport. After spending almost every day together across three countries, saying goodbye felt strangely unnatural. Ten months earlier, twenty-seven strangers arrived in Leicester from different corners of the world. We leave with much more than a degree. We leave with friendships that crossed languages and cultures, with countless inside jokes that would make absolutely no sense to anyone else, and with memories from Leicester, Milan and Neuchâtel that will forever belong to this little family we built along the way. The 26th edition was fortunate enough to experience an extraordinary year of sport, from studying in an Olympic and Paralympic host city to graduating in a World Cup year. But in the end, the biggest moments were all those ordinary ‘low expectation’ moments that became extraordinary simply because we shared them.
So perhaps this is not really the end. The twenty-seven of us are simply heading back out into the world, this time carrying a few more stories, a few more people to call family and, hopefully, a future in sport that once felt like a distant ambition and now feels a little closer. And wherever the next chapter takes us, we know there will always be twenty-seven people somewhere in the world cheering from the sidelines.
Class of 2026: signed, sealed and officially graduated.
By Rita El Idrissi Semlali - FIFA Master 26th edition student
FIFA Master - International Master in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport, ranked Europe's No.1 course a record 14 times by SportBusiness and No.2 in the world.
Organised by CIES in cooperation with De Montfort University (UK), SDA Bocconi School of Management (Italy) and the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland).
Applications for the next edition of the FIFA Master (September 2027 start) will open in early October 2026. Further information and the dedicated course application form is available at this link - https://www.cies.ch/education/fifa-master/apply-to-the-fifa-master
