Haitian community rallies ahead of World Cup
But in the speakeasy of Hue, it is sung with gusto, an outpouring of joy. The patrons were there to celebrate Haiti at the World Cup and toast a sporting hero who has roots in both Haiti and Massachusetts: their national team captain, Frantzdy Pierrot, 31, who went to high school at the northern end of the Orange Line.
The World Cup can have this affect on people — national pride, mixed with bittersweet history, and a heavy dose of delight. And yes, there is discussion of the soccer, or football, as pretty much the rest of the world calls it. The tactics, the predictions, the strengths and weaknesses of the various squads.
But the sheer scale of the tournament is so culturally impactful that the talk inevitability turns to the personal. Ostensibly, people are talking about soccer, but really they’re talking about their childhood, their country’s history and culture, and how it fits in with the game. The tournament is simply a rhetorical entry point to all that.
For Haitians of a certain age, their Dave Roberts moment came in 1974, when their country qualified for the World Cup. They were playing Italy, a European footballing superpower. The goal came shortly after halftime via Route 1 football: there is a clearing header from the Haitian central defense, then a straightforward through-ball that Haitian forward Emmanuel “Manno” Sanon latches onto.
He rounds the renowned Italian goalkeeper, Dino Zoff, and puts the ball in the net. Haiti 1- Italy 0. It broke Zoff’s lengthy string of scoreless games.
In Port-au-Prince, there was bedlam, Lucien, 62, recalled. He can still remember walking to his friend’s house to watch. Televisions were a relative rarity at the time in Haiti, and his buddy had the appliance that conveyed the match in real-time. He remembered that on the walk, all the radios in the street were tuned to the game. After the goal, there was the shouting and jumping. General elation.
The result of the game is typically a footnote in these recollections. (Italy won 3-1.) As is the rest of the tournament for the national team. (Haiti failed to earn a single point and was cumulatively outscored 14 to 2.) But for Haitians, Sanon’s goal was enough proof that they belonged on soccer’s global stage.
More than a half-century has passed since that goal. Haiti has failed to qualify for every World Cup since. Until now.
And there is, of course, a Massachusetts connection that goes beyond the team’s June 13 clash with Scotland at Gillette Stadium and the local diaspora’s jubilance at the upcoming tournament. The Haitian team captain, Pierrot, spent his formative years here in Massachusetts, attending middle school and high school in Melrose, before a stop playing college soccer at Northeastern University.
Ten miles north of Boston is where Pierrot’s family sought a better life.
“Melrose gave me everything,” Pierrot said at Hue.
When they moved from Haiti, the focus was education for him, not athletics, said Pierrot. His father drove a bus and worked other jobs, including one at Logan Airport, sometimes only sleeping four or five hours a night to make ends meet.
Nowadays, his father, Destine, is sure that uprooting his family to Melrose was the right move. Asked what he will feel when his son walks out on the field and the Haitian national anthem is played before the first World Cup match, he answers simply, “Happy.”
The meet-and-greet at the Back Bay bar came shortly after Pierrot was feted as a sporting hero during a ceremony at the Massachusetts State House. Governor Maura Healey said he represented “the very best of” the Commonwealth, all the while declaring a statewide day in his honor. Former coaches recalled his dogged determination and unshakeable self-belief. The Melrose High School marching band struck up a version of “Sweet Caroline.”
He fielded questions in English and Haitian Creole from the press. He posed for photos with admirers decked out in Haiti jerseys and signed autographs.
His soccer journey has allowed taken him overseas, with stints in places including Belgium, France, Israel, Greece, and, most recently Turkey. He has played Champions League soccer against some of Europe’s biggest clubs, including Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, and Benfica.
It’s a long way from Bas-Limbé, a community on Haiti’s northern coast, about 140 miles away from Port-au-Prince. That is where his family’s roots are. It’s where he recalled playing soccer in the streets barefoot, using whatever was around as a ball, including spherical fruit.
“Football gave us happiness,” he told the State House crowd.
Nowadays, Haiti remains a nation rocked by turmoil, with gangs controlling much of the capital. In recent years, the national team’s home stadium was overrun by gangs and vandalized and the national soccer training center was set ablaze. The violent instability has also meant that the Haiti national team had to qualify for the World Cup all the while playing their home games abroad.
The Haitian diaspora, too, has weathered hardship, namely federal hostility toward immigrants. Greater Boston, which is home to the third largest Haitian community in the US, has not been spared the pain, as tens of thousands of immigrants in the state wonder whether they will be deported to a country riven by chaos.
For Pierrot, the World Cup grants him and his teammates an opportunity to show that there is more to Haiti than horrific headlines and news dispatches from what some experts consider to be a failed state. For Haitians, both at home and abroad, the World Cup offers a respite from the heaviness.
“It means so much,” said Boston City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune, a Haitian American.
After the event at Hue and the State House ceremony, Lucien hosted a local access television program to discuss Haiti at the World Cup inside an Egleston Square media studio.
Among his guests was Donnet Desilus, a 65-year-old Dorchester resident who once upon a time captained the Haitian national team.
He spoke about what the US has given his family: four college educations for his children, three of whom went to Ivy League schools. And like everyone else in the local Haitian community, he talked glowingly about what the competition means for Haiti, given the real-world heartbreak the nation continues to suffer through.
“It’s the best thing for the country,” he said.
But he is measured when talking about the team’s chances.
Their initial opponents include Brazil, which has won more World Cups than any other nation. Morocco made it to the semi-finals of the most recent World Cup four years ago and were recently — and controversially — crowned champions of Africa. Scotland earned their trip here through the gauntlet of European qualification.
“It’s a tough group,” he said.
Danny McDonald can be reached at daniel.mcdonald@globe.com. Follow him @Danny__McDonald.