Haiti is going to the World Cup. That sentence hasn’t been true since Richard Nixon was in the White House and gas cost 55 cents a gallon.
On November 18, 2025, Haiti’s men’s national football team, known as Les Grenadiers, secured a 2-0 victory against Nicaragua to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It marked the end of a 52-year absence from the tournament, with Haiti’s last appearance dating back to 1974 in West Germany.
A road unlike any other
Here’s the thing about Haiti’s qualifying campaign: it was conducted entirely in exile. Every single qualifying match was played on neutral ground because escalating gang violence in Port-au-Prince made hosting games impossible.
French coach Sébastien Migné managed the entire campaign without ever setting foot in Haiti. The man who guided a nation back to football’s biggest stage has never visited the country he coached.
