Ontario man living the dream hosting World Cup in Qatar

Canadian making mark as a World Cup host Canadian talent and former GTA resident known as 'Dancin' Wayne' has been working World Cup games as an in-stadium host.

Most of the action at the World Cup is on the field, but for those in the stadium seats there's another show – this one features a Canadian talent.

"My job is to inject as much fun as possible and to leave them with a lasting experience. Whether they win or lose, my job is to make sure they can go home saying 'wow that was a great show.'"

He goes by Dancin' Wayne. The Oshawa, Ont. native has been working as an in-stadium host for the 2022 World Cup games. From dancing, to fan-interviews, Wayne does almost anything he can to entertain the fans at the games.

"It's been a marathon," he told CTV News, "I think I've had three days rest and that's just because of the grind of so many games."

The journey from the GTA to Qatar involved a move to British Columbia, and a decision to make a big life change.

"I quit my job," he said. "I felt like I wasn't, I shouldn't be sitting at a desk eight hours a day. I went full time on an app called TikTok, ended up becoming pretty popular on that app. A couple of companies slid into my DMs…one of them was FIFA."

After hosting a couple of trial events, Wayne was chosen to be one of the hosts for the World Cup.

His epiphany also followed a serious motor vehicle collision that he was involved in last year.

"A drunk driver ran me off the road and almost left me with very long lasting injuries where I couldn't even walk properly. And I went from that to where I'm at now because I didn't want to live the same life I was living."

Wayne says he spent three hours a day in the gym, every day during the 18 weeks leading up to the tournament to get himself into shape for his stadium performances.

"They're not small stadiums right? These are 50 thousand seat stadiums so to get from one end to the other end to see some fans you've gotta move, you've gotta hustle."

With the World Cup wrapping up in Qatar, Wayne has been having the time of his life. And he hopes others will be encouraged by his story to stop sitting on the sidelines of life and get in the game.

"My best message to people right now is find your best version of happiness. I was hosting and dancing and doing all this stuff as a kid in high school even up through college and even then I loved doing it,” he said.

“It wasn't about the money, it was just about what I wanted to do. And I did the millennial thing and got a corporate job and paid off debt which was great but it wasn't me so I had to go back and realize I wanted that version of happiness again."