The inspiring history of the Haitian futsal selection

“The incredible adventure” of the Haitian futsal selection in 2021, bringing together mainly players from the diaspora established in Montreal and elsewhere in Quebec, is a story of resilience and community.

“In the account of the Haitian futsal association, there was no money,” Alexandre Kénol tells young people from the Saint-Michel district during an evening at the Maison d’Haïti. And in that, we had to go and play against Costa Rica. ”

The squad were trying to travel to Guatemala to qualify for the Futsal World Cup, a form of indoor soccer played five-on-five, last May.

Le projet, parsemé d’embûches, a culminé jusqu’à une avance de 2-0 contre le Canada lors du deuxième match, avant que les espoirs ne s’effondrent en toute fin de deuxième mi-temps.

L’équipe haïtienne s’est finalement inclinée 4-2 contre l’Unifolié, après avoir baissé pavillon 7-0 face au Costa Rica. Mais jeudi dernier à la Maison d’Haïti, où des joueurs étaient aussi présents pour raconter leur épopée à une cinquantaine de personnes, ce ne sont pas les deux défaites qui ressortaient du récit.

« C’était un projet communautaire à la base, nous explique Kénol, devenu entraîneur de l’équipe à défaut d’autres options. C’est la communauté qui nous permet de nous en sortir. C’est ça, la beauté de la chose. »

Its captain Shaquille Michaud adds: “When everyone gets together, that we are sincere in what we want to do, we are capable of doing great things. ”

The genesis

But their participation was anything but won in advance.

“Until a week before the competition, we didn’t know if we were going to leave,” Alexandre Kénol told the people gathered.

Let’s take a few steps back.

This “crazy idea”, says Shaquille Michaud, it came from Alain Grégoire, president of the Haitian futsal federation. He wanted to allow diaspora players in Canada to represent their country of origin.

He went to Boston to meet Jean-Yves Baert, the former president of the Haitian soccer federation, and to promote his project. The latter “did not want to collaborate”, according to Alexandre Kénol. All the money and energy went into soccer.

“But everyone is crazy about this project,” says Kénol.

Grégoire was stubborn. Baert ended up “giving his blessing”, but without any funding from the Haitian federation.

Pandemic requires, the qualifying tournament scheduled for 2020 is postponed. It is finally announced at the end of the year that it will be held in May 2021.

Train “in secret”

That only leaves the team a few months to prepare. Without being able to train in groups – at least legally – the gyms are closed.

In January, despite the good news from CONCACAF telling them that they were going to be able to participate, they were told that they were going to have to pay for all the trips themselves.

As misfortune never comes alone, the person who was to train the team withdraws.

The selection is therefore left without a coach and with additional bills. This is where Kénol decides to take the reins of the team.

The players first train virtually.

“I go to my garage to do exercises on Zoom, remembers goaltender Steve Charles Jonathas. […] It was 6 a.m., I wasn’t ready for it. I work weekdays with a physical job. I made the sacrifice because it was close to my heart. ”

But virtual training has its limits, especially in view of an international competition.

In full confinement, the team uses their imagination to find a way to train in a group.

A private gymnasium in Greater Montreal allowed them to come together “in secret”. We justified group training by using the alibi… of a multimedia shoot.

“We did four training sessions per weekend,” Kénol remembers. The guys got up, they went there at times that were not hot for the police. We had to do this throughout our preparation. ”

The game was worth the candle, according to the coach of the selection.

But without any certainty, it was not always easy to motivate his troops.

“Some people said they didn’t want to get involved if it wasn’t serious,” said captain Shaquille Michaud. I found a way to convince those who had doubts. ”

Resilience in the face of uncertainty, therefore. But we were talking earlier about community support.

“In two months, we raised $ 33,000 with all the help of the people,” says Alexandre Kénol.

“Our first victory in itself is that we were able to have certain sponsorships, that we were able to take the plane tickets and leave. The community has helped us a lot. ”

It was still necessary to go to Guatemala.

“On February 15, no one had their Haitian passport,” Kénol remembers, smiling and sighing in his voice. The deadlines are nine months to one year. We have the competition in three months. ”

In short: on May 3, everyone had their passport.

Beyond defeat

Of course, there were also the matches.

All the players interviewed speak in particular of the pride of wearing the Haitian jersey.

“I grew up in the culture, explains Shaquille Michaud. I know how important it is, regardless of the circumstances, that we meet again. The selection is playing, everyone is behind their screen cheering. ”

But this Haitian team, made up of players playing in the futsal league of the Premier League of soccer of Quebec (PLSQ), will remember above all the great battle it waged against the Canadians.

Bernick Monfort scored the first goal of the selection. He is proud to speak of his “first international goal”.

After his own second goal, Monfort regrets that they “got carried away”.

“We thought it was over against Canada, that we were going to win. We really lost the game in the last 10 minutes. ”

He looks towards his teammate Dylan Barthélémy, sitting next to him during the presentation.

“Dylan was the first to cry, and the last to cry. It hurt us. ”

Barthélémy recovered from it and today sees the thing in a good light.

Shaquille Michaud sums up the message that the players of the team wanted to convey during this evening.

“It’s important to realize that the quality of your efforts will determine the quality of your results,” he explains.

“If everyone gets together, everything can be fine,” added goaltender Steve Charles Jonathas. If young people continue to work on themselves and have confidence in themselves, anything can happen. ”

A teenager came to the microphone during question period. He asked them at what age you could start playing futsal.

The Haitian selection may have left Guatemala without a victory, but it did not come back empty-handed.