Haiti Reaches 2026 World Cup With Coach Who’s Never Even Set Foot in the Country
The country will make its first World Cup appearance since 1974
We're still finalizing the field for the 2026 FIFA World Cup ahead of the highly anticipated draw on December 5 in Washington, DC, but there have already been some surprises.
One of those surprises was the island nation of Haiti (or, I guess more accurately, half-an-island; middle school geography bee champs like me get it), which will make its second-ever World Cup appearance.
But what's most surprising is that they managed to get to the World Cup under a coach who has never even set foot in the country.
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Frenchman Sebastien Migne was hired to coach the Haitian team about a year and a half ago. However, because of the rise in kidnappings, terrorist activity, and unrest since a massive earthquake struck the country in 2010, they've had to play their home matches 500 miles away on the Caribbean island of Curacao.
So, how does one coach a national team without going to that country? Well, you do it the same way a lot of people work these days: you do it remotely.
Haiti will make its first World Cup appearance since 1974, and did it with a coach who has never even been to Haiti. (Photo by EZEQUIEL BECERRA/AFP via Getty Images)
"It's impossible because it's too dangerous," Migne said in an interview with France Football magazine, per BBC Sport. "I usually live in the countries where I work, but I can't here. No more international flights are landing there."
So, Migne had to rely on Haiti's national soccer federation to give him all of the information he needed on local players, and he got to work from that.
"They gave me information, and I managed the team remotely," he said.
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And it sounds like he did a heck of a job as he got Haiti into their first World Cup since the 1974 tournament in West Germany.
Yeah, it was so long ago it was still called that.
That year, things didn't go so well for the Haitians as they were eliminated in the first round after three straight losses.