FEATURE: Curaçao - Smallest Nation Ever at the Finals

Paul Schmidt-Troschke with a special feature on the island nation of Curaçao. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Hello and welcome to World Cup Football, etc. with me, Paul Smithrosko. Today I start with a guess which might be offensive to some people, but I think I am right when I say that before the 2026 World Cup, many people did not know that the island nation of Curacao even exists, less even to point out on a map where it is located. But the last weeks made the smallest country to ever qualify for a World Cup famous around the globe, where it presented itself in matches against Germany, Ecuador, and the Ivory Coast. And already in its first ever World Cup match, Livano Comencia managed to score Kuraçao's first World Cup goal against Germany of all opponents. But before everyone forgets about the 158,000 Curaçaoans and their astonishing achievements, as it is placed fourth in its group and will therefore leave the tournament before the knockout stages, let's dive into the fascinating history of football in Kuraçao. Everything began with the founding of the Kuraçause Football Bond, or CVB for short, which was established in 1921 and organized the first national championship with eight clubs. And as you could hear my excellent Dutch pronunciation there, yes, the country used to be a colony of the Netherlands and is still part of the country, although as a constituent country under the Dutch crone, with sovereignty over domestic affairs, while foreign policy and defence is still under Dutch command. Interestingly, there are two other nations holding the same status: the neighbouring island of Aruba and up northeast, Sint Maarten, close to the Virgin Islands. Back to football, one of the first notable successes of the national team was a 4-0 win against famous Dutch club Feyenoord in 1946, which drew 37,000 spectators into the stadium in Rotterdam, almost as many people as Kuraçao had inhabitants at that point in time. In 1950, the country made history by winning its first gold medal in the Central American and Caribbean Games, and in the following years, finishing runners-up in the CONCACAF Championship in 1955 and 1957. But then a long period began in which Curacao did not achieve any notable successes in the greatest game on earth, only to resurrect in 2017, by winning the Caribbean Cup after a 2-1 win over Jamaica in the final, and therefore advancing to the CONCACAF Gold Cup finals for the first time ever. This win was probably the most important event which eventually led to Curacao's first ever World Cup qualification and a direct one on top of that, finishing first in their qualification group after a draw against Jamaica, remaining undefeated throughout its qualification run. But to really understand how this country, with a population smaller than of most mid-sized cities in other countries, achieved what hundreds of millions of people worldwide can only dream of, we have to explore the colonial history and relationship between the island and the Netherlands. After being owned by the Dutch crone as a part of the Dutch colonial empire for more than 300 years, it gained semi-independence in 1954 by becoming part of the Dutch Antilles as an autonomous country regarding its domestic affairs, with foreign policy and defence still dictated by Amsterdam. Then, after a historic referendum in 2010, the country we nowadays know as Kuraçau was born out of the old Dutch Antilles, but still remains a part of the Dutch Kingdom. As a direct heir, Kuraçaal therefore also inherited the FIFA ranking and football legacy of the Dutch Antilles, getting it somewhat of a head start. Due to the close relationship with its former colonial owner, a phenomenon is observable which replicates itself more and more across the globe, namely teams of former colonies being full of foreign-born players. In this case, 25 of the 26 national team members were born in the Netherlands, learned to play football in the excellent Dutch football academies, and then, due to their parents' or grandparents' Kuraçaan origin, changing their football allegiances to be Kuraçaon. But exactly this situation worked against indigenous football for most of the time, since almost everybody with family ties to the island dreamt of playing for the Netherlands one day. The first attempt to change this was done by then national team coach Patrick Kluvert in 2015, trying to convince top talents like Jürgen Lukadia to play for the Caribbean nation. Only when no other than Dutch coaching legend Dick Advoca took over and convinced ten players to switch their allegiance, the fundament of what we have witnessed over the last weeks began to substantiate what have been only dreams to that point. And the players thanked him for his service by enabling him to break the record for oldest coach in FIFA World Cup history with 78 years and 260 days of age. But he was not the only one to break record in a Croissant football jersey, as goalkeeper Eloy Rune rose to global fame by making a record 15 safes during normal time in the match against Ecuador, keeping the scoreboard clean and collecting the first point for the country in a tie against the South American Football Powerhouse, which just beat Germany 2-1. I hope from the bottom of my heart that Curaçao and nations alike will enrich future World Cups with their history, presence, performance, and incredible and fascinating stories.