CHESTER — It’s by way of understatement that Danley Jean Jacques, in his soft-spoken manner, uttered volumes Thursday.
“Representing Haiti means many things,” the Union midfielder said hours after returning to his club from international duty. “You have to give your heart.”
Representing Haiti, since 2021, means not being able to play home games. It means onerous restrictions on travel for a nation that became a meme for those hoping to score political points, more than a country with a rich culture. It means surmounting disasters both natural and man-made.
And for the first time since 1974, Jean Jacques and his teammates ensured Tuesday night, it means going to a World Cup.
Jean Jacques and Haiti’s men’s team qualified for the World Cup for just the second time in history, via a 2-0 win over Nicaragua. It’s a watershed moment for a rich soccer culture that faces headwinds few national programs can comprehend.
“I’m very proud to have qualified my country for a World Cup,” Jean Jacques said via a translator. “It feels good, and I think it makes all Haitian people in general feel good.”
Jean Jacques wasn’t on the field Tuesday in Curacao, suspended for yellow-card accumulation. But the central midfield has been instrumental in the campaign. The 25-year-old is the owner of 27 caps and six goals, the latter figure fifth-most in the squad for the latest round of qualifiers.
“I’m very, very happy for him,” said Olivier Mbaizo, the Union right back and one of Jean Jacques’ closest friends on the team. “… That’s history for a country. He is so happy. All the country is happy.”
Jean Jacques made his senior international debut on March 24, 2023, which means he’s never played a senior home game in Haiti.
The country last played at home in 2021, as part of the qualifying tournament for the last World Cup. Stade Sylvio Cator, the national stadium in capital Port-au-Prince, has been held by gangs since March 2024.
Even before, international games were moved abroad in the name of visiting teams’ safety, after a delegation from Belize in March 2021 was held up by armed gangs.
A nation still recovering from a 2010 earthquake that killed more than 100,000 people and subsequent cholera outbreaks in part seeded by the recovery effort was plunged into further chaos in 2021 with the assassination of president Jovenel Moise.
The soccer program has survived via pockets of talent in the diaspora, in the United States and in former colonial holder France. Its soccer federation has tried to host games in areas that tap into those communities, though the ability to obtain visas has been limited by countries like neighboring Dominican Republic and the United States.
Soccer, however simplistically and temporarily, can be a salve. The responsibility to uphold a nation’s pride and identity is something Jean Jacques carries with him.
“I think they are very happy,” he said of the response from fans. “It had been a long time since Haiti qualified for a (men’s) World Cup, and now we’ve done it. I think they are proud, and I hope they will stay behind us and push us and give us strength.”
Haiti played its home fixtures in the second round of CONCACAF qualifying in 2024 in Barbados, where one game drew all of 88 fans, and Aruba. For the third round, Ergilio Hato Stadium in Willemstad, Curacao, has been home. The Dutch constituent island has drawn near capacity crowds at the 10,000-seat ground in its run to becoming the smallest country ever to qualify for a World Cup. But Haiti’s attendance figures have been around 1,500.
Even by these uniquely difficult standards, Haiti found a hard path to the World Cup. It booked passage out of its group in the second round of qualifying with three wins in three games, before a 5-1 pasting by Curacao to finish second in the group.
In the third round, consecutive draws in September put Les Grenadiers on the back foot. A 3-0 loss to Honduras on Oct. 13 left them basically needing to win out in their final two games, both in Willemstad.
They did just that, Jean Jacques going 90 to beat Costa Rica, 1-0, last Thursday, sending Los Ticos stumbling out.
Haiti then beat Nicaragua in a set of six simultaneous kickoffs across the region to jump Honduras, which tied with Costa Rica, into first place, directly qualifying for the World Cup. Panama and Curacao joined them. The top two second-ranked teams, Suriname and Jamaica, can qualify via the inter-confederation tournament in March, though each needs to win twice.
Jean Jacques watched the finale from the stands but joined in the celebrations.
“It was a bit stressful, because I wanted to play. I wanted to give everything for my country,” Jean Jacques said. “But I was confident in my teammates. I knew they would do the rest of the work. I had done the most I could, and I was very confident that my teammates would get it done.”
Jean Jacques has a chance to make history for the Union: He would be the second active Union player to take part in a World Cup while with the team, joining Mbaizo’s selection for Cameroon in 2022.
Mbaizo was one of a number of teammates to post congratulatory messages to Jean Jacques Tuesday night, an indication of the esteem in which he’s held just a year after his arrival from French club Metz.
“Danley is a good person,” Mbaizo said. “Right now, everybody is like family, everybody supports each other. So everybody’s happy for him.”
Jean Jacques has heard a lot of those messages. He’s got seven months to stay healthy and in form to be a part of the Haitian team. But he’s already helped it make history.
“It has always been a dream to play in a World Cup, to qualify my country,” he said. “So I’m very happy. I’m waiting for the moment when it arrives, and I’ll see how it goes. But no matter what, whether I’m on the field or off it, I’ll support my teammates and give everything for the country.”
Source: Berkshire mont