‘Rock Chalk Algeria’: Lawrence seeks sister city connection with World Cup nation
No one in this Kansas town wants the World Cup love to fade.
What began in Lawrence as a show of affection for Algeria’s World Cup national team appears to be growing into a lasting bond. The leaders of the town some 40 miles west of Kansas City are looking into the possibility of becoming a sister city to a community in the North African nation.
“We are having that conversation with various cities in Algeria. We are. We genuinely are. I can confirm that we are in initial conversations with a couple of communities,” said Cori Wallace, the City of Lawrence’s director of communications and community relations.
Wallace did not name the cities being approached. The path to sisterhood, she said, lies with Sister Cities Lawrence, a nonprofit that is governed by an elected board of which the city’s mayor, Brad Finkeldei, is currently the honorary chair. The town already has four sister cities: Eutin, Germany; Hiratsuka, Japan; Messolonghi/Iniades, Greece; and Tocopilla, Chile.
“We have had several cities in Algeria reach out about a sister city relationship, and at least one will be virtually attending the sister city meeting in July,” the mayor said in a statement. “I certainly hope and expect we will be able to foster this exciting time into an official sister city with a city in Algeria.”
A North African nation, a Midwestern welcome
The desire to connect to an Algerian town is a direct result, Wallace said, of the overwhelming, mutual goodwill that was generated in the first moments, on June 8, when the Algerian team arrived by bus in Lawrence to make the town its home base for the World Cup.
As the team pulled in, the University of Kansas marching band had waited to greet the athletes, playing the Algerian national anthem. “That gave me goosebumps,” Algeria head coach Vladimir Petković later said.
As of Tuesday, Algeria was still competing in the tournament, scheduled to play in Vancouver on Thursday, July 2, in the Round of 32 against Switzerland.
For the last three weeks, Lawrence has aimed to wrap the team and its fans in Midwestern warmth, hoisting the nation’s flag into the windows of countless shops, bars and restaurants.
Merchants Pub & Plate, 746 Massachusetts St., removed pork from its menu out or respect for the predominantly Muslim country. At Aladdin Cafe, 1021 Massachusetts St., owner Samir Iskandrani, an American of Jordanian descent, prepared lamb shank and the dip, muhammara, made of red pepper and walnuts, in their honor, hanging an Algerian scarf across his restaurant’s front window.
Support for the team has been so great that the T-shirt shop, ACME, 847 Massachusetts St., has been inundated with orders from customers, some of whom had a scant notion of where Algeria was on the map until the team’s appearance.
The town literally changed its landscape for the team. On June 13, a crowd of hundreds gathered in a field alongside the University of Kansas’ Lied Center to stand should-to-shoulder along the border of a giant Algerian flag, a third of an acre large, which was cut and created in the grass by earthworks artist Stan Herd.
Fans have been grateful, unfurling a giant banner reading, “Thank You Lawrence,” in Kansas City on Saturday at Kansas City Stadium (Arrowhead) during the team’s match against Austria, which ended in a 3-3 draw.
Wallace with the City of Lawrence said that whatever ideas are being discussed to solidify the town’s connection to Algeria are currently speculative, “nothing set in stone.”
“We’re calling it the initial conversation,” Wallace said. Other idea that have been floated, she said, include the exchange of public artwork, delegations of elected officials, as well as sending and accepting student delegations.
“Those initial conversations have begun in earnest,” Wallace said. “We've had conversations with the Algerian ambassador to the United States, Ambassador (Sabri) Boukadoum. And we’ve had conversations with Elizabeth Aubin. Elizabeth came last Friday and chatted with our mayor. She is the former most-recent ambassador to Algeria from the United States. . . .
“We’re seeing this as not just a potential economic development partnership, but a potential for real cultural exchange and a continued relationship that’s rooted in reciprocal hospitality.”
Lasting moments
What is far less speculative, residents said, is the lasting effect the presence of the World Cup tournament, along with the presence of Algerians and their fans — both domestic and international — has had on them personally.
At the Lawrence Arts Center, employee Kevin O’Malley, a member of the maintenance staff who is also an artist, created a 5-foot-tall fennec fox — the mascot of the Algerian team — out of cardboard, where it currently sits on display in the center’s lobby, with the Algerian flag across its chest. He did it without being asked. He did it without being compensated.
Sara Harley, communications manager for Explore Lawrence, the city’s conventions and visitors bureau, said it has been “surreal” how in the international press, the story of Lawrence and its connection to the Algerian team and its fans has become a World Cup example of kindness and acceptance at a time of grave political division.
“I knew that Lawrence would accept the team and accept the fans and be excited about it,” she said, “but I didn't really expect it to become like a global news story. That’s the piece that’s really been the most surprising, I think, but in a good way, in a very good way. …
“I’ve seen it online — and then, also, in person — comments from people just kind of coming here, or seeing our community online, and it just kind of not being what people expected. I think that’s been really good seeing people having their opinions about America changed by this experience.”
‘It restores your faith in humankind’
For some, permanent change came from small moments turned into forever memories.
Adela Solis, an employee at The Raven Book Store, 809 Massachusetts St., saw two Algerian men at 1900 Barker, the cafe and bakery. Without saying a word, she bought their coffee. When it came time to order, the barista told them that it had already been paid for. The next day, the men found her, arriving at the bookshop carrying Saudi Arabian dates for her as a thank-you.
“When they came to talk to me, I got hugged from both of them, and they invited me to go to the game with them that night,” Solis said. “It was super sweet.”
“It restores your faith in humankind,” Solis continued. “You hear all of the stupid stuff going on in the world, and all its leaders. It’s not the average people in the countries. And these were just everyday people, like we were just everyday people enjoying each other’s company.
“It was nice to know that in this, I’ll pick an adjective, ‘difficult,’ dark time, that there are people who are super-kind to each other and super-thoughtful and super-respectful. And it was just really, really nice.”
Elena Northcutt, an employee at ACME, the T-shirt shop, said she will never forget how the line of Algeria’s fans stretched out the door of her shop. Early on, a fan fixed on a design. After that, nearly everyone else in line chose the same design in a show of unity and support.
World Cup affirmation that ‘means the world’
“I think Lawrence has always been a very accepting place before this whole Algeria thing has come on us,” saId Iskandrani, the manager of Aladdin Cafe. “But when they leave, I believe that people will understand a lot more that everyone is very similar to one another. We all have the same values. A big part of the World Cup isn’t just about soccer, it’s about the people.”
Iskandrani became emotional on Tuesday in recalling his own lasting Algerian moment, a few minutes of affirmation from strangers, speaking in Arabic to visiting fans, and serving them a meal, unsure how they would react.
“This is the first year I am running this restaurant,” Iskandrani said. He is 25, born around the same time that his father, who retired in December, opened the spot. The recipes, he said, are all from his grandmother from 27 years ago.
“I’m replicating everything,” he said. “And to hear that I’m doing it right, to hear that they are enjoying it, Arabs and Americans alike, and think that it’s authentic and delicious, it means the world to me.”
‘Rock Chalk Algeria’
Kevin Herman’s change may be the most lasting of all.
“I’m actually not a huge soccer fan,” he said inside ACME, the T-shirt shop. He concedes, in fact, that although he knew where Algeria was on the map, he knew little else about it, until the group came to Lawrence, which is also when he became a fan.
“Well, I’ve just done a lot more research on the soccer team itself, and then just, you know, the connection — how Lawrence has brought Algeria in, and how they’ve accepted it. It’s pretty awesome.”
Awesome enough to merit a new T-shirt emblazoned with two flags — one for the United States and one for Algeria — and one appropriately Lawrence message: “Rock Chalk Algeria.”
This story was originally published July 1, 2026 at 2:05 PM.
