\n<\/p>\n
Haiti have been playing their ‘home’ matches 500 miles away in Curacao.<\/p>\n
Sixteen of Haiti’s players were born abroad, across five countries. The 26-man squad represents 25 clubs from 15 countries.<\/p>\n
The man who has woven these threads into a coherent outfit is Frenchman Migne, who was Cameroon’s assistant coach at Qatar 2022.<\/p>\n
“He’s a magical coach,” said Midy.<\/p>\n
“When I’m watching the games of Haiti, I cannot explain how he does it. I asked him, he said, ‘It’s not me, it’s the players. I don’t have no secret. I just tell them put your heart in it.'”<\/p>\n
And that is exactly what Nazon, who was born in France to Haitian parents, does.<\/p>\n
His passion for the nation has earned him hero status, regardless of his 44 goals in 80 games, according to Midy.<\/p>\n
“We call him the chuchu of Haiti,” he says, referring to the French term of endearment.<\/p>\n
“Haitian people always see in him, an example of someone who feels more Haitian than every person born and raised in Haiti.”<\/p>\n
His team-mate Hannes Delcroix, the former Burnley defender, was born there but was adopted by a Belgian family when he was two.<\/p>\n
He has never returned and only in recent years has established contact with his mother and sisters.<\/p>\n
“I have never seen them before in real life, but through the phone, we call now and then,” he said. “It’s a strange feeling in the beginning of course because you don’t have any bond, any connection.<\/p>\n
“I think I just wanted to know first if she is OK, she is healthy, if everyone is safe. If there’s anything I can help, this kind of stuff.”<\/p>\n
Perhaps this reconnection with his biological family is what moved him to pledge his international allegiance to Haiti in 2025.<\/p>\n
“You come to a point that you ask yourself, what do you want now and for which country do you want to play? And for me, that case was Haiti,” said the 27-year-old, who played once for Belgium in 2020.<\/p>\n
The cynical view is that Delcroix may only have picked Haiti because they were on the brink of World Cup qualification, but he says it has become a voyage of self-discovery.<\/p>\n
“It was always in the back of my head that I could play for Haiti. The first time when we got together, I felt like I was not alone,” he said.<\/p>\n
“When I’m with the Haitian team, it helps a lot to understand more about the culture and the language. I don’t speak Creole so that’s something I really want to dig into.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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