Haitians switch soccer allegiances from Brazil as ‘Grenadiers’ end World Cup drought

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Soccer fans in Haiti have for decades gathered in front of televisions and radios to support Brazil in every World Cup. But not this year.

Haiti has qualified for the global tournament for the first time since 1974, and the excitement is brimming. Spontaneous soccer games are erupting on dusty lots while shirts emblazoned with the country’s team players are sold at a growing number of street corners.

Haiti ‘s national team — known as the ‘Grenadiers’ — will start the tournament in Group C along with Morocco, Scotland and … Brazil. It will face its longtime soccer idol at the Philadelphia Stadium on June 19.

“My favorite team is Brazil, but my country is in the World Cup. Brazil is on the sidelines,” Guerier Lima, 16, said with a grin. He recently played soccer on a potholed street in the capital, Port-au-Prince, wearing a sneaker on one foot and a plastic slide on the other, eager to score between rocks serving as goalposts.

He wore a Brazilian jersey emblazoned with the number 10, a replica of the shirt worn by soccer greats including Pelé, Neymar and Ronaldinho.

“I would like to be Duckens Nazon, representing Haiti in tournaments,” Lima said referring to Haiti’s top scorer. “My family can’t afford to send me to a club to pay for my training, but I’m working my way into a club somehow.”

Lima said he likes Kaká, a retired Brazilian footballer, but his favorite player is Nazon, a forward with Iran’s Esteghlal Football Club.

“Brazil is good,” Lima said, “but I’m going to stand by my Haitian brothers.”

‘Grenadiers’ provide hope for the troubled nation

Widespread hunger, grinding violence and concern about a surge in gang violence is being set aside, however fleetingly, as Haiti cheers on its team.

Prophète Ismeus, a 52-year-old broker, scanned the replica soccer shirts on sale on a dusty street corner in Port-au-Prince. Unable to afford a $13 shirt, he settled for a $1 plastic bracelet in Haiti’s red-and-blue flag colors.

“I’m showing my support for Haiti in the best way I can,” he said. “I’m hoping Haiti will beat Brazil.”

Ismeus said he would return to the street stall when he has more money to buy a small flag “so I can wave it in the air when Haiti scores against Brazil.”

Fitho Joseph, a street vendor who sells replica soccer shirts, said he stopped supporting Brazil as soon as Haiti qualified.

“Even if a family has 10 people, everyone should wear a jersey,” he said.

Wilkerson Daromain, 33, agreed.

“Wearing the jersey is a message of hope that I send to each of the Grenadiers who will fight for us and for Haiti — a message that there is still life here and that we must keep going,” he said. “We are living in very difficult circumstances, but the Grenadiers have given us hope, and we, too, must give them hope.”

The rallying cry of Haiti’s soccer fans is “Grenadye, alaso!” — meaning “Troops, attack!” — which originated in the revolutionary era when Haiti became the world’s first Black republic.

Mario Etienne, 15, said it will be his first time witnessing his country at the World Cup, with Haiti last qualifying in 1974.

“This is a national gathering,” he said. “If there’s no power, I will be somewhere on the street or at a friend’s house watching it.”

Claudy Denis, 14, expects to do the same. “We can’t be in the stadium where they are, but we will watch them on TV,” he said with a wide smile. “Of the three games that they’re playing, I’m not going to miss a single one.”

An enduring love for Brazil

Haitians have long revered Brazil’s team, with the love affair for many starting during the 1982 World Cup, where captain Sócrates led a team which included Zico, Falcão and Toninho Cerezo.

Their support for the team only grew in 2004 when Brazil led a U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti. It organized a game to promote peace in the Caribbean country, which was still reeling from a violent rebellion that ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Thousands of Haitians ran beside an armored convoy that ferried Brazilian greats including Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos to a stadium in Port-au-Prince.

“It was impressive how there were people the whole way from the airport to here, everybody chanting, ‘Brazil! Brazil!’” Roberto Carlos told The Associated Press that day.

Haiti lost 6-0, but no matter. Haitian fans waved Brazilian flags and celebrated the game.

It was only one of a handful of games between Haiti and Brazil, with the South American country pummeling the Caribbean team 7-1 during a 2016 Copa America match.

Yvenson Luxama, a 34-year-old street vendor, said he expects Haiti to attack Brazil “like a tiger.”

“I will watch the game, definitely,” he said, adding that he will still close his eyes whenever Brazil attacks Haiti.

But the World Cup and Haiti’s upcoming games don’t mean much to Jean-Paul Jean Pierre, a 29-year-old street vendor who recently began selling team shirts and flags. “I’m here to make a living, not love any teams,” he said.

Pierre is among the more than 1.4 million Haitians displaced by gang violence and lives in a cramped, makeshift shelter with his partner and two children, whom he struggles to feed.

“Making money, that’s what interests me,” he said. “I wish there was a World Cup every year, so that I can continue to survive.”

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Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Associated Press videographer Pierre-Richard Luxama in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, contributed to this report.