Haiti at the FIFA World Cup: Team profile and history
Read through Haiti's World Cup history, records and memorable moments. Follow their road to the tournament with the latest on their fixtures, group and coach.
Haiti are set to strut their stuff on the global stage for the first time since 1974
Les Grenadiers fought their way out of Concacaf qualifying to reach the 2026 showpiece event
Learn more about the Caribbean side's World Cup history and record holders
Haiti are heading to the FIFA World Cup 2026™ in what will be the islanders’ first appearance at FIFA’s flagship event since 1974. Read on to find out how the Caribbeans clinched qualification for the competition to be held in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Following his appointment as Haiti’s national-team coach in March 2024, Sebastien Migne oversaw the nation’s entire qualifying campaign for the global extravaganza. During his playing days, the French tactician spent several seasons in the lower reaches of English football during the late 1990s.
After stepping into coaching at the tender age of 26, he became a familiar figure on touchlines across France and enjoyed notable spells as Jean-Pierre Papin’s right-hand man at Strasbourg and Lens before striking out on his own in the world of national-team football. Stints in charge of Oman, Congo DR, Congo and Togo followed before he took up the reins of Kenya, whom he guided to a first CAF Africa Cup of Nations appearance in 15 years back in 2019. Having coached Equatorial Guinea, he was appointed Rigobert Song’s assistant in the Cameroon dugout in 2022. He then took the Haiti hot seat, bringing tangible success.
“It’s an interesting project and Haiti have a proud footballing tradition,” the coach stated at his unveiling. “Our aim is to write a new chapter with this group of players, who know exactly what we’re looking to do: make it to the World Cup.”
13 June: Haiti v Scotland - Boston Stadium
19 June: Brazil v Haiti - Philadelphia Stadium
24 June: Morocco v Haiti - Atlanta Stadium
Les Grenadiers successfully navigated their way through both of the rounds that they faced in Concacaf qualifying. In the second round, they finished runners-up in Group C behind Curaçao. With three wins and just one loss in their four matches, the Haitians’ only defeat came in a 5-1 demolition by the Blue Wave, who are also bound for North America.
In the third round, in a highly competitive group that comprised a pair of nations with more World Cup pedigree in the shape of Costa Rica and Honduras, as well as Nicaragua, Haiti suffered a single defeat, a 3-0 reverse away to Honduras, and, more importantly, took four points from the Costa Ricans to secure first place in Group C. The Haitians had every reason to celebrate the scoreless stalemate between Los Ticos and Honduras, which they followed up by beating Nicaragua 2-0 to confirm their return to the World Cup stage for the first time since 1974.
Confederation: Concacaf
Best World Cup: Group stage (1974)
Last World Cup: West Germany 1974 (group stage)
First World Cup: West Germany 1974 (group stage)
World Cup appearances: Two (1974, 2026)
Overall World Cup record: P3 W0 D0 L3 F2 A14
Haiti’s sole World Cup appearance to date came in 1974. The Caribbean side qualified by winning the Concacaf Championship in the previous year, which took place on home soil in Port-au-Prince and acted as the qualifying tournament for FIFA’s global bonanza for the first time. The hosts racked up four wins in five games, with their only setback coming when Mexico edged them out 1-0 in their final encounter. However, that did not prevent them from topping the overall standings and securing their spot in West Germany.
At the 1974 tournament, the Haitians were drawn into an extremely tough group in the first round, lining up alongside Italy, runners-up at the previous edition, an Argentina side featuring the likes of Mario Kempes and a Grzegorz Lato-inspired Poland team, who would go on to clinch the final podium place. Antoine Tassy’s charges were on the wrong side of the result in all three encounters: slipping to a 3-1 defeat against the Azzurri, being on the end of a 7-0 drubbing dished out by the Poles and succumbing 4-1 to the Albiceleste. The Caribbeans could at least take consolation from the fact that they found the back of the net on two occasions courtesy of Emmanual Sanon.
In reference to the defeat to Italy, Philippe Vorbe, whose inch-perfect through-ball set up Sanon’s goal in the contest, reflected, “It remains Haiti’s finest result to date. We managed to keep the Italians at bay for a good part of the match and, to cap it all, we were able to break [Dino] Zoff’s record.”
Sanon is the only Haitian to have found the net on the global stage and is therefore also the nation’s leading marksman in tournament history, with two goals to his name.
Despite his side falling to three defeats in as many games at the 1974 edition of the global showpiece, the Don Bosco sharpshooter enjoyed a stellar tournament campaign. Most memorably, Sanon broke the deadlock in the meeting with the Italians, whose backline had not been breached in their previous 19 encounters.
“Everyone was asking themselves who’d manage to get the better of Dino Zoff,” the goal-getter said after the tournament. “The newspapers talked about European and South American players, but nobody believed that a Haitian would do it. That bothered me because I knew I could do it.”
In his side’s group-stage curtain-closer, he fired a thunderous strike past Argentinian goalkeeper Daniel Carnevali, although the Albiceleste had already established an unassailable three-goal lead by that point. Following his World Cup exploits, the fleet-footed forward flourished at Beerschot, where he captured the 1979 Belgian Cup alongside Polish goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski, who was the only shot-stopper Sanon had failed to beat at the 1974 showpiece. In 1980, “Manno” moved stateside, where he represented the Miami Americans before calling time on his career with the San Diego Sockers.
Seven Haitians can boast a trio of World Cup appearances: Eddy Antoine, Pierre Bayonne, Jean-Claude Desir, Henry Francillon, Sanon, Vorbe and former captain, Wilner Nazaire. They all featured in the team’s three group-stage matches in 1974.