52 years later, the national team achieved the World Cup without ever having played a single match in all the qualifiers in Port-au-Prince. Furthermore, three days after the great debut with Scotland, the federation was forced to change the shirts due to graphics that recalled its fight for independence from France. And there is a thread that ties them to the Marche…
To explain the World Cup in Haiti, a phrase from an old book written down by a soul made restless by history must be isolated. Hannah Lillith Assadi, an American writer and daughter of a Palestinian who emigrated to New York, wrote in “Sonora” that “there is nothing more all-consuming than the desire for a place to call home.” The people of Haiti can only nod melancholy: after 52 years they have achieved the World Cup without ever having played a single match in all the qualifiers in Port-au-Prince. Three days after the great debut with Scotland, the federation was forced to change the shirts due to graphics that recalled its fight for independence from France. The coach, Sebastien Migné, has never set foot in the Silvio Cator, the capital’s stadium in the hands of armed gangs. In 2010 it was destroyed by an earthquake in which around two hundred thousand people died.
poverty and crime
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Haiti is a sort of “never island”, except that even Edoardo Bennato and Peter Pan demobilized here. There is no fantasy, there is no utopia, there is little to sing and imagine: the capital is in the hands of gangs, the President of the Republic is still vacant – the last one, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated in 2021 – 80% of the population lives below the poverty line and in the last year more than five thousand people have died at the hands of armed gangs. At the helm of the country is Fils-Aimé, a pro-Trump entrepreneur. In April he met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio to seek help in fighting gangs. The UN has calculated that more than 16 thousand people have been killed in the last five years. Massimo Miraglio, a Vatican missionary, said that in order to pass on humanitarian aid such as food, medicine and clothes he was forced to pay bribes to criminals: “They can stop you at any time, seize everything and, if they want, even kill you.” The miracle linked to the World Cup, favored by the automatic qualification of Mexico, the United States and Canada to the group stage, is the result of an almost unique context where the players born in the Caribbean Sea are only ten out of 26. Twelve were born in France to Haitian parents, one in Canada, one in Switzerland and another two in the United States. One of the native-born players, Wilguens Paugain, a full-back for Zulte Waregem, delivered pizzas to homes before joining Migné’s expedition. It was the fault of an Achilles tendon injury which forced him to stay out for months. Ricardo Adé, the vice-captain, was defrauded by an agent in Thailand. He had promised him food, accommodation and a stable contract in exchange for money, but when the boy showed up in Bangkok he discovered that it was all false. “I didn’t have a euro left, I slept on the beach for several days”.
the Ascoli of Haiti
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The story of Woodensky Pierre, 21 years old, a “garra” midfielder born in Cité Soleil, a city whose mortality rate linked to AIDS is still very high, is more serene. In 2024 a gang killed 207 people in one day. The police don’t dare enter here. Pierre is the only one who plays in his homeland, with Violete of Port-au-Prince. Before arriving there he played in the youth team of Ascoli FC Haiti, a team that bears the name and colors of the “Queen of the Marche” which had just returned to Serie B after winning the playoffs. They don’t have a first team: the aim is to take the kids off the streets and give them a future. There is a story behind the name. It seems that in the nineties – the club says – a group of Haitians visited Ascoli, tasted the famous olives, walked in Piazza Arringo and were so impressed by the hospitality that they founded a team with the same name. Who knows, but in the meantime Ascoli of Haiti exists, is having fun and is also on social media. Pierre is the idol of the house.
movie stories
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The most representative face is Frantzdy Pierrot, 31 years old, with dual Haitian-American citizenship. Born in Cap-Haitien, where Christopher Columbus left the survivors of the Santa Maria, he joined his father in the United States at the age of 12. Pierrot senior, a teacher and bus driver, had fled to provide stability to his family and guarantee a future. Every month he sent money and letters: “Save so you can come here.” Frantzdy is part of the small group of players who grew up on bread and soccer in an American college. Before scoring with Mouscron, Guingamp, Maccabi Haifa, Aek Athens and Rizespor, he had fun for a while in the NCAA. Only Duckens Nazon has scored more goals than him in the national team: 44 to 33. By the way: the latter, known to all as “The Duck”, a striker who has played for CSKA Sofia and Esteghlal, made a twenty-hour drive in 2025 to escape the war in Iran. Once he arrived at the border with Azerbaijan, he was initially rejected due to lack of documents. The guards didn’t believe he was really a football player. He managed to prove it by connecting to the Azerbaijani network. His wife and four children remained in France. “I was afraid I would never see them again,” he said.
an Italian in Haiti
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The last note is a blue flag. Haiti had not qualified since 1974. The last coach to have brought the “rouge et bleu” to the World Cup was Ettore Trevisan, a coach from Trieste who passed away in 2020. At the time the country was in the hands of Jean-Claude Duvalier, “Baby Doc” – his father, also president, was nicknamed “Daddy Doc” – dictator for fifteen years. The manifesto of how this country has changed in the space of fifty years has changed little. Trevisan took the national team to the World Cup, but Duvalier took the job away from him before landing in Germany. It was the fault of an interview in which Ettore photographed the real life of the State, as reported by Corriere della Sera: “I found kids who didn’t eat enough, who lived in miserable shacks, who didn’t know what it meant to train. They believed they had to necessarily lose against the white men’s teams, or perhaps that they had to resort to voodoo rituals. I told them: look at Cassius Clay, Frazier and others, who are black and play them to everyone.” He managed to encourage them. Migné is ready to take an example. Haiti will play in Boston against Scotland, in Philadelphia against Brazil and in Atlanta against Morocco. Scattered around the world there are approximately two million Haitians. Most are divided between Canada and the United States. After six years we can say that they will play at home.
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