One question for each 2026 World Cup team. When is Haiti’s inspiring feel good story also an indictment for the state of the world?
Would you love me in a Bentley? Would you love me on a $95 bus from downtown Boston to Gillette Stadium? Footnote is asking 48 questions, and they’re all about the 48 teams at the 2026 World Cup. This post is part of our Group C preview. You can also read previews of Brazil, Scotland, and Morocco.
When is Haiti’s inspiring feel good story also an indictment for the state of the world?
On one level, this doesn’t have to be complicated.
Haiti is a poor, small country, and that type of country does not typically make it to the World Cup. Caribbean nations in particular rarely qualify. There are very few spots from Concacaf, and those are typically taken up by Mexico, the United States, and the relatively wealthier and more populous Central American nations.
The odds were stacked even more against Haiti. In the 2020s, the country’s post-2010 descent into borderline statelessness accelerated to the point that it was no longer safe for players based abroad or other national teams to come to Port au Prince at all. In their campaign to qualify for this summer’s tournament, Haiti was forced to play all of their home games in Curacao. Head coach Sebastien Migne has never actually been able to set foot in Haiti.
Against that backdrop, Haiti qualifying for their first World Cup since 1974 is a pure, uncomplicated thing. When they confirmed their place with a 2-0 “home” win over Nicaragua, the players collapsed onto the field and into each other’s arms in tears. They ran to the corner where a small contingent of Haitian fans were just as emotional. It was the kind of uncut sports joys that makes the wider World Cup so special.
But it is hard to focus on the feel good parts of the Haiti story without thinking about the feel bad parts. Haiti’s first World Cup in generations will be played in a country that is arguably responsible for its current state, first through centuries of general interference in Haitian and broader Caribbean politics and then through a disastrous aid policy in the wake of the 2010 earthquake.
More recently, the Trump administration placed Haiti under a complete travel ban to the United States, issuing a complete prohibition on issuing immigrant or tourist visas to Haitian citizens, after a presidential campaign that leaned heavily into being racist to Haitian people living in the midwest.
The Haitian World Cup run can be a symbol of perseverance against adversity, but the tournament is being played in a nation that is at the very least not helping with that adversity, and is actively preventing Haitians from traveling to see their team. That’s harder to feel good about.
The good news is that there probably will be good fan support for Haiti at this World Cup: There are an estimated 1.5 million people who were either born in Haiti or have at least one parent born in Haiti living in the United States.
Some of those Haitian-Americans will in fact be playing for Haiti at the World Cup, including veteran MLS forwards Derrick Etienne Jr. and Fafà Picault. Elsewhere, Haiti have a core of players who came through the French development system, most notably Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder Jean‐Ricner Bellegarde, the recently-recruited Sunderland forward Wilson Isidor, and all-time leading goalscorer Duckens Nazon.1Speaking of people who might have a hard time dealing with the current United States government, Nazon is a Haitian citizen currently playing for a club based in Iran. Everyone seems fairly confident that no players will be barred from entering the tournament, but if Nazon didn’t also have French citizenship, it would not be entirely surprising if this administration tried to stop him from entering the country.
This is not necessarily a squad that can realistically aim for the knockout stages: Haiti currently sit 83rd in the FIFA world rankings and 77th in ELO.
International soccer is frequently that one college football tweet about how all college football players are the best ever to come from their high school, but some guys are going to the NFL and some guys are going to be attorneys. This is notably true for Haiti, whose players range from legitimate starters from the top five European Leagues to guys who play in USL.
What does this mean for their actual World Cup performance? Likely that they will be last in their group, which consists of three legitimately good teams.
But against the backdrop of everything else going on in their country, and despite all the reasons not to feel good about the situation, if Haiti can play well and make some magic happen across 270 minutes of soccer this summer, this World Cup can be a uniquely great moment for their fans.
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