Curaçao has an area of 444 km2, fewer inhabitants than Almería and barely 16 years behind it. 16 years, of course, as an autonomous country after October 10, 2010 the Dutch Antilles were definitively dissolved and, with them, the vestige of centuries of colonization.
More or less.
Because they remain autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. That is to say, Curaçao, like Aruba and San Martinhave their own parliaments but depend on the Dutch force to defend their borders. They are also tied to their foreign policy.
Peculiarities of a world that seems to have been left behind but that continues to remind him of the Netherlands and multitude of territories scattered around the world There was a day when the Dutch managed, administered and, of course, exploited their lands in favor of a metropolis that was thousands of kilometers away.
Today those vestiges of the past are still more or less present. Between 2021 and 2023, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands They took over to apologize for the exploitation and slavery of people for centuries wherever the Dutch were present.
Today, the Netherlands cannot be understood without the immigrants from those territories. Nor does his team, which in the last Eurocup He participated with 16 soccer players who were children or grandchildren of immigrants African or Caribbean. But the Suriname or Aruba teams are not understood either.
Of course, not to Curaçao either, the smallest country to compete in the final phase of a World Cup.
globalist colonialism
According to data from last year provided by the Netherlands Central Statistics OfficeOf the 18 million people who live in the country, there are more than five million people who are immigrants or children of immigrants. Of them, 2.1 million citizens are children of immigrants.
Those five million people, according to FIFA regulationswould be eligible for the Netherlands if they have been residing in the country for more than five years. But of them, those more than two million people (to which the grandchildren of immigrants should be added) could also be selectable with the federation of their ancestors.
They know it well in Curaçao.
Of the 25 players called up for the 2026 World Cup, only one of them was born in Caribbean lands. Is Tahith ChongSheffield United player in England, born in Willemstadthe capital of the country that brings together half of the population of the entire territory.
It is the result of a policy that began to be planted years ago and that has now germinated with the most attended World Cup in history. Opening participation to 48 teams was the perfect opportunity for Curaçao. With three nations such as Mexico, the United States and Canada already classified as hosts, Concacaf went from 3.5 World Cup berths to 6.5 (the “seventh” was played in the play-off with an African team). It was now or never.
They explain in elDiario.es that the project was born from the hand of Gilbert Martina, president of the federation, who attracted Patrick Kluivert, a former FC Barcelona soccer player whose mother was from Curacao, to contact Dutch soccer players of Caribbean descent. And the project succeeds.
He succeeds so much that today We only have one player born in Curaçao representing Curaçao. With three additional spots open for the North American and Caribbean Confederation, the opportunity to play in a World Cup was very attractive for those who decided to take a plane to play against Jamaica in a life or death final in Kingston and defend a tie that gave them a ticket to the most attractive competition in the world of football.
The attraction of the project is evident in the statistics books. Of the 10 players who have played the most games for Curaçao since their emancipation as an independent team in 2011, nine are Dutch. The company has also raised interest among coaches. Since the arrival of Patrick Kluivert as coach in 2015, eight of the nine coaches have also arrived from the Netherlands, with a single exception from Curacao.
Wearing the Curaçao shirt was the express (and only) ticket to reach a World Cup for these players, most of whom were unknown to the general public and undoubtedly without sufficient level to be part of Ronald Koeman’s plans where they were born. In fact, only five of them play in the Dutch first division. The rest of the players are divided between the second division of major leagues such as the English one or mid-table teams of lesser-known leagues such as the Turkish, Greek or Israeli ones.
Use a “wild card selection” to guarantee a ticket to a final phase of a World Cup or a major national team tournament has been a common practice for years but such a “migratory movement” has never occurred. At the 2014 World Cup It was the only match where two brothers have participated wearing different shirts despite sharing the country of birth: Jerome Boateng defending Germany and Kevin Prince Boateng doing the same for Ghana. Iñaki Williams, a player from Athletic Club de Bilbao, also participated with Ghana in the 2022 World Cup in which Nico Williams wore the Spanish shirt. This time the paths did not cross.
The debate about whether or not to call the best available is a tricky one. Alberto Edjogo-Owono, a well-known Dazn commentator born in Sabadell, defended the Equatorial Guinea shirt and recognizes that there is a debate within the footballer and another within the fan. This is how it was expressed in Africa Worldto David Soler’s questions:
“A moral dilemma opens up for me: ok, on the one hand it’s fine, but of course. Be careful, I don’t want to be hypocritical. I was born in Sabadell and if I had had the level to play for the Spanish team, then I would have tried to play for the Spanish team, because it is the country where I was born, where I was raised, where I am and where I have trained. Sometimes I think, what a pity that you didn’t choose the country of your parents, but I think that at one point I also did it that way. (…) There is always that moral dilemma with cases like that of Kevin Price Boateng, who only went with Ghana to African Cups or World Cups, not to qualifiers. Hey, if you already choose to represent the country of your parents, you have to go all out with this. For example, the Congolese Cédric Bakambu and Chancel Mbemba are a very clear example of this: if I have to play in Djibouti, I go, if it’s South Sudan, then I go too.”
The decision to fish out players also has its counterpart, points out Alberto Edjogo-Owono. And rescuing all those who play in the big leagues may be a successful solution in the short term but it has implications that last over time. Beyond having greater or lesser identification with the country and, therefore, attending the qualifying tournaments, there may be the problem of failing to invest in the development of footballers born in the country itself, trusting everything to the arrival of talents born outside its borders.
Curaçao made a decision. And from the chronicles of those who were on the islandit seems that it is the decision that the majority supports. Maybe it was the only chance that they had to play an official match in the final phase of a World Cup. They will do it first against Germany, then against Ecuador and finally against Ivory Coast.
Whether or not they certify a qualification to the round of 32 that seems almost impossible, Tahith Chong will be able to boast of being the only player born in Curaçao who has played in the final phase of a World Cup, although at his side he has 24 other teammates who defend the same shirt.
Photo | Curaçao National Football Team
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