The New Geography of the World Cup
Key takeaways
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- More than 50 years later, 16 of the 26 players who took the field for their first game against Scotland on June 13 were born outside of Haiti, and most play for clubs in North America and Europe.
- Haiti’s reliance on foreign-born talent is a by-product of conditions that have driven many people to leave the country: economic instability, political turmoil, and pervasive insecurity.
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The first time that the Haitian men’s national soccer team played in the FIFA World Cup, in 1974, it was composed entirely of homegrown players: All 22 people on the roster were born in Haiti, and all but one represented local clubs.
More than 50 years later, 16 of the 26 players who took the field for their first game against Scotland on June 13 were born outside of Haiti, and most play for clubs in North America and Europe. These players are mostly eligible for the team through Haitian ancestry. Only one player, Woodensky Pierre, is based in the country. The national team’s head coach, Sébastien Migné of France, has never set foot in Haiti, even as he leads the squad in its second-ever World Cup appearance.