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For good and for bad, the World Cup has always held a mirror up to the world at large.
On a stage that attracts a global audience of billions geopolitics is magnified, the cultural make-up and national identity of every participant laid bare for all to see.
Occasionally, this comes through in the football itself, but mostly it manifests off the pitch.
By what means did a team qualify? To what extent are they inspiring a nation back home, and why is that nation in such desperate need of sporting stimulus?
Subsequently, a country’s societal and political ailments become talked about and known; no longer relegated to a few paragraphs every so often in a foreign broadsheet newspaper.
Via football, with all of its accompanying razzmatazz and drama, we get to see the world for how it really is. For good and for bad.
There is no better example of this truth than in Haiti’s surprise qualification for the 2026 World Cup.
The Caribbean country, located fifty miles east of Cuba, has deep-rooted problems, vast and varied. There is extreme poverty, widespread hunger, and sustained civil unrest. According to the United Nations: ‘Armed gangs control large swathes of territory and violence has spread well beyond the capital Port-au-Prince, weakening the State’s ability to govern and deliver basic services.’
Yet, despite not being able to play any of their qualifying fixtures on home soil, and despite being ranked 83rd in the world, a team nicknamed the ‘Grenadiers’ have beaten the odds and qualified for their first World Cup in 52 years.
It is an extraordinary achievement forged in qualities that directly reflects those of the Haitian people, namely spirit, pride, and the fortitude to overcome adversity.
And it doesn’t get much more inspiring than that.
A diaspora of talent
“The idea is to write a new story with these players.”
So said the team’s coach Sébastien Migné recently, a Frenchman who has never stepped foot in Haiti due to the multifaceted crisis that holds the country hostage.
Appointed in 2024, the 53-year-old has managed to assemble a dynamic, counter-attacking collective from a diaspora of talent, many of whom were born and raised in France.
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Primarily set up as a 4-4-2 it’s a collective that relies heavily on the midfield industry of Leverton Pierre and Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, the latter a Premier League star with Wolves.
Up front, the prolific Duckens Nazon partners Sunderland’s Wilson Isidor, at times a devastating combination of pace and movement.
There is talent in this group for sure, enough to have already seen off the likes of Honduras and Costa Rica to navigate a path to the finals, all while playing their home games in such diverse places as Aruba and Curaçao.
Haiti recently hosted two friendlies in Toronto.
And when Nicaragua were defeated last November, in their final CONCACAF qualifying commitment the celebrations in Port-au-Prince were wild and meaningful. Gunshots were fired into the air. Taxi horns blared through the night. To a man, woman and child, Haitians vowed to no longer support Brazil, as is typically their custom at World Cup finals, instead displaying fierce passion and patriotism towards a country many deem to be on its knees.
That latter development is pertinent incidentally given that the famed Seleção are one of three group C opponents to face later this month.
Morocco and Scotland make up the rest of what is, by common consensus, a very tough group.
A Tall Task: In the company of giants
In 1974 – Haiti’s only other World Cup outing - the Grenadiers also faced a South American giant, in the form of Argentina. Hopelessly outclassed by a nation four years away from being crowned world champions, they were downed 4-1.
A few days earlier, they were pummelled by Poland, a side on route to the semi-finals that year, while in their opening fixture Italy emerged triumphant, but not before the underdogs shocked the watching world by going in front. A goal by Emmanuel Sanon put a full stop to Dino Zoff’s record for the most international minutes played without conceding.
If three heavy losses, to an aggregate scoreline of 14-2, suggests that Haiti were comprehensively eclipsed, however, two factors must be considered in their defence.
Firstly, the players were notably inhibited, acutely aware that ‘Baby Doc’, their country’s feared dictator – and football obsessive – was tuning in back home.
Then it must also be acknowledged that after overcoming enormous obstacles to actually reach the finals, Haiti were put among remarkably tough company.
To open proceedings, the World Cup finalists of 1970. Then a superb Polish side enjoying its golden era. Lastly, the World Cup winners of 1978.
Zoff finished runner-up in the Ballon d’Or rankings twelve months early. A few months post-tournament, Kazimierz Deyna – one of the scorers in Haiti’s seven-goal thrashing – finished third.
It just didn’t seem fair.
Cursed to endure: Haiti’s hex
Regardless of the disappointing results in 1974, Haiti’s appearance on the global stage still gave the Haitian public significant pride. It offered up hope. Hope for a different future.
But of course, in the cold light of day, once the circus tents had been taken down and real life resumed, little changed in the Caribbean republic.
They still lived under a brutal dictatorship. They were still – by every official metric – the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
A popular uprising in 1986 appeared to put Haiti back on track only then, in 2010, the country endured the deadliest natural disaster of the 21st century for a single nation when a catastrophic earthquake struck, killing upwards of 200,000 people.
With the 52 aftershocks to the quake destroying sanitation plants a cholera outbreak emerged, quickly becoming endemic.
It felt like Haiti was cursed to suffer. It still feels like that to this day.
Which is why Sébastien Migné’s recent comment carried so much weight. It’s why Haiti’s second ever appearance at the World Cup this summer is so very important.
Nobody is expecting the Grenadiers to revive living conditions in Port-au-Prince, or solve the rampant gang problems. Their predecessors in 1974 showed us that football can only inspire, not transform.
But nonetheless, it really is time to write a new story.
Nomination asymmetry
Haiti are not the only Caribbean nation at the World Cup. Fellow underdogs Curaçao have also qualified, their story just as impactful, and the inclusion of these two small nations prompts an interesting talking point. Could a Caribbean footballer ever win the Ballon d’Or?
Presently, only one player from the region has ever been nominated, that being Dwight Yorke, the Trinidad and Tobagonian winning the Champions League with Manchester United in the same season where the striker won the Premier League Golden Boot.
Naturally though, the numerous islands has produced other outstanding talent in the past, and could again.
Yorke’s compatriot Shaka Hislop comes to mind, a world-class keeper on his day who made 221 Premier League appearances across an esteemed career.
Bringing matters to the present-day, Leon Bailey has had his moments, particularly in his first couple of campaigns with Bayer Leverkusen. Going much further back there is the aforementioned Emmanuel Sanon, a World Cup immortal.
This summer Haiti and Curaçao travel to Foxborough, Massachusetts, and Atlanta, and Philadelphia, determined to inspire their respective nations back home; determined to show their worth.
Let’s hope there is a superstar of the future from the region, watching on.
