| Joe Gaetjens | ||
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| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Joseph Edouard Gaetjens | |
| Date of birth | March 19, 1924 | |
| Place of birth | Port-au-Prince, Haiti | |
| Place of death | Haiti | |
| National team | ||
| 1950 1953 |
United States Haiti |
3 (1) 1 (0) |
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Joseph Edouard Gaetjens (born March 19, 1924, Port-au-Prince, Haiti – presumed dead July, 1964, Haiti) was a Haitian American soccer player who played for the United States national team in the 1950 FIFA World Cup, scoring the winning goal in the 1–0 upset of England.
Born in Haiti to a Haitian mother and a Belgian father, Gaetjens went to New York City in the late 1940s to study accounting at Columbia University on a scholarship from the Haitian government. While there he played for Brookhattan of the American Soccer League, winning the league's scoring title. His success for the team attracted the attention of U.S. Soccer, and Gaetjens made the national team for the 1950 World Cup.
Gaetjens played three games at the World Cup, but easily the most memorable was one of the greatest World Cup upsets in history, in which Gaetjens scored the decisive goal of a 1–0 victory in which the American soccer team defeated the hugely favored English at Belo Horizonte.
Although Gaetjens was not a U.S. citizen, he had declared his intention of becoming one, and under the rules of the United States Soccer Football Association at that time was allowed to play. However, Gaetjens never actually did gain American citizenship.[1]
At the end of the World Cup, Gaetjens moved to France where he played briefly for Troyes, before returning to Haiti in 1954 to become a spokesman and entrepreneur. Gaetjens remained active in soccer, playing for the Haiti national team December 27, 1953, in a World Cup Qualifier against Mexico.
On July 8, 1964, Gaetjens was arrested by the nation's notorious Tontons macoutes secret police and is presumed to have been killed some time that month.[2]
Joe Gaetjens was posthumously inducted into the United States National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1976.
Gaetjens is interpreted by Jimmy Jean-Louis in the film The Game of Their Lives.
References
- ^ Jere Longman, "How a ‘Band of No-Hopers’ Forged U.S. Soccer’s Finest Day", The New York Times, Dec. 10, 2009
- ^ The Shocking of the US Goalscorer Murdered After They Beat England in 1950 Pete Samson The Sun December 12, 2009
External links
- Joe Gaetjens at the National Soccer Hall of Fame
- Cirino Antonio (Tony): US Soccer Vs The World, Damon Press 1983 - ISBN 0-910641-00-5
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