Footfall is the joy ‘Les Grenadières’ make history at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup

The assertion that I am not exactly an embodiment of athleticism is not only a monumental understatement but is also an affront to a man named Gary Jones, a fanatical Physical Education teacher from Wales. It was Mr Jones who once expressed his contempt, saying, “your attitude to sports is an insult to sportsmanship”. I epitomised everything this man loathed. An insufferable wannabe teenage intellectual who listened to Beethoven and revelled in the works of Thomas Mann. My sportrelated triumphs were not found in exertion or achievements but in the devising of strategies to exert as little effort as possible even if this meant cutting a gruelling ‘track and field’ exercise short by hailing a taxi. It shall come as no surprise that I managed to receive a failing grade in Physical Education, an “achievement” I viewed as a “badge of honour” at the time.

Decades later, while still not an enthusiastic athlete, I have come to appreciate physical exercise through hiking, especially around Salt Cay. Equally, I’ve found joy in following football as a spectator, whether at local fixtures or watching international matches.

As the celebrated author Terry Pratchett so eloquently put it, “The

BY TITUS DE BOER

thing about football - the important thing about football - is that it is not just about football”. This statement resonates especially when commenting on Women’s football and no team in recent football history has impressed me and much of the football world more than Haiti’s ‘Les Grenadières’.

The ‘Les Grenadières’ or ‘The Soldiers’, recently made sporting headlines when they won against Chile by a score of 2:1 and thereby, unexpectedly, qualified for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup hosted jointly in Australia and New Zealand.

‘Les Grenadières’ represent a nation that has long struggled to heal the deep wounds left by colonialism and slavery, in large part because of the burdensome debt levied by France in exchange for its freedom. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and over the last 13 years its citizens have endured deadly earthquakes and devastating floods. Since the assassination of its President, in 2021, gangs have controlled much of the area in and around the capital Port-au-Prince. With vigilantes having taken up arms against these gangs, the United Nations has recently called for an international peacekeeping force to help restore order. Against this bleak background, Haiti’s participation in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup is nothing short of miraculous, especially when you consider the fact that this is a team with no corporate sponsorship whatsoever and its national football association in complete disarray.

The Haitian team, which is placed 53rd in the FIFA world teams rankings, is also one of the youngest to ever represent a country. Most of its players were children in 2010 when a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the island nation, killing approximately 300,000 people and levelling much of the capital, Portau-Prince. “It’s something that no Haitian has ever forgotten,” its star player, Melchie Dumornay, recently remarked in an interview, “So many of our loved ones died. There’s been a lot of sadness, despair, and pain, both emotional and physical. It taught us to be more careful, to take a more serious approach to what we do in life, and to always be determined, because we can tell ourselves that we’ve still got a life to live.”

If you thought the prospects of facing England, China and Denmark at the group level would have intimidated the Haitian team, think again. Hardship has a peculiar way of forging a spirit of iron-clad tenacity. This spirit was on full display on Saturday 22 July, when Haiti squared off against England in its group stage opener. England, ranked fourth in the world, understandably bursting with self-confidence, clearly had underestimated the resilience of the Haitian team. For much of the game, Melchie Dumornay looked like the best player on the field, while goalkeeper Kerly Théus blocked shot after shot. With Haiti down only 1-0, in the 80th minute, striker Roseline Éloissaint sprinted half the length of the pitch, scooped up a pass, tore past three English defenders and launched a right-footed laser strike that would have found the back net had it not been for an agile diving save from England’s goalkeeper, Mary Earps.

Realistically, the odds of Haiti progressing to the knockout stage were always going to be long. On Friday, 28 July, they put up a valiant effort against China, the Asian champions, but narrowly lost. Haiti’s next opponents are Denmark who are ranked 13th in the world. Yet, the fact that Haiti qualified for this year’s World Cup is an achievement with which ‘Les Grenadières’ have written a new page in the history of world football. In the words of the Haitian midfielder, Danielle Etienne, “There’s a lot of unhappiness in the country and