Opinion Curaçao’s World Cup qualification is a football fairytale

Not many people would have heard of the tiny Caribbean island of Curaçao but football World Cups have a habit of pushing small nations into the global spotlight, even if briefly. In the 1990s, it was Cameroon and Costa Rica, followed by Slovenia, Angola, and Togo in the 2000s. That tradition is now being carried forward by Curaçao, Cape Verde, and Haiti, all of which reaffirm that football remains the one truly global sport. It is a game in which an island that is a speck on the map can outshine nations with vast sports budgets and large populations.

Curaçao became a FIFA member only in 2010, yet the expanded 48-team World Cup in North America has given it a rare chance to aim high. After all, no one recruits a pedigreed coach like Dick Advocaat unless ambitions run deep. Advocaat led the Netherlands to the World Cup quarterfinals in 1994; in 2026, the smallest team ever to reach a World Cup is set to be guided by someone who will, at 78, be the tournament’s oldest coach. The opportunity to attract players with Curaçaoan family roots who play professionally elsewhere certainly played a role, though such strategies are hardly unusual among nations seeking a breakthrough. The current squad features only one player born on the island, but a shared sense of identity and belonging proved sufficient to carry them across the qualifying line.

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Detractors may argue that an expanded World Cup dilutes quality and competition, that the European Championship now offers superior football. But the game benefits from representation across as many regions as possible. With several traditionally strong teams struggling or failing to qualify — Italy may even miss a third consecutive tournament — the enduring romance of the World Cup lies in the possibility that even the smallest nation can enjoy its moment in the sun.