Soccer gradually usurping baseball in Cuba: Report
A shot by United States forward Jordan Morris (11) bounces off the face of Cuba defender
Dario Ramos (16) past Cuba goalkeeper Nelson Johnston (21) for a goal in the fi rst half
during a CONCACAF Nations League soccer match at Audi Field, Washington, DC, USA on
Oct. 11, 2019. Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports, fi le
Caribbean Life, APRIL 23-29, 2021 35
By Nelson A. King
Soccer, known worldwide
as football, like many Caribbean
islands, is slowly becoming
a sport of choice in baseball
stronghold, Cuba, according to
FIFA.com.
For many years, FIFA.com
said Cuba has been most known
for producing top-class baseball
players.
“At this moment, football is
liked like baseball in Cuba,” Cuba
Football Federation President,
Luis Hernandez told Front Row
Soccer. “The children, young
people like football very much.
If the national team of Cuba gets
good results in this tournament
World Cup qualifying, more
people will like football.”
FIFA said that Cuba is
embarking on their FIFA World
Cup Qatar 2022 qualifying journey,
“where they will navigate
a tricky looking Group C in the
first round of CONCACAF’S
qualifiers.”
They started their campaign
with a narrow 1-0 defeat by Guatemala
in Guatemala City.
“Although the national team’s
last, and only, FIFA World Cup™
appearance was at France 1938,
where the Cubans edged past
Romania into the quarter-finals
only to be on the wrong end of an
8-0 humbling by Sweden, things
are starting to look up in terms
of regional results,” FIFA said.
It said Cuba won the Caribbean
Cup for the first time in
2012, before the regional tournament
was abolished in favor
of the new CONCACAF Nations
League.
FIFA said the Lions of the
Caribbean have also consistently
qualified for the bi-annual CONCACAF
Gold Cup since 1998,
only missing out three times
since.
“Cuba can now also boast of
having a player with Premier
League experience in Norwich
City’s Onel Hernandez,” FIFA
said.
It said that, although the
Canaries are now playing in a
division below, a return to the
top flight looks inevitable.
“So, it is feasible that Hernandez
could be scoring goals in one
of the top leagues in world football
again later this year,” FIFA
said. “And in the country’s latest
national team squad, there have
been call-ups for players plying
their trade in Spain, San Marino,
USA and Brazil.”
“We have so many kids in
Cuba that love football, and they
want to live the dream that I
lived,” Hernandez told the New
York Times.
FIFA said Cuba’s history at
the top of the game “stretches
way back.”
It said there were four Cubans
on the first ever Real Madrid side
founded in 1902.
“And if the ubiquity of young
children playing football across
Havana’s streets and pitches is
anything to go by, there could
be 21st-century heroes suiting
up for Los Blancos in the near
future,” FIFA said.
/FIFA.com
/FIFA.com