Haitian soccer historical past, World Cup and a photograph of a younger boy

It’s one of the most enduring images of Haitian soccer: a young boy in a red Haiti soccer jersey walking across the field with a ball in his hand, just ahead of the national team’s first World Cup match. The boy, 3 years old at the time, was both German and Haitian, and he had no idea why photographers were paying attention to him.

For generations of Haitian soccer fans, the image has come to symbolize different things at different times: Haiti’s future, the bridging of cultures, the reminder of hope.

Now, more than 50 years later, as Haitians prepare to turn Boston Stadium into a sea of blue and red for Haiti’s opening FIFA World Cup match against Scotland at 9 p.m. Saturday, social media has rediscovered the boy in the photograph: Miro Magloire, now an acclaimed choreographer who has become a somewhat reluctant figure in Haiti’s soccer history.

Earlier this week, his photograph was recreated in a short film, “Grenadye Alaso! 1974-2026,” about Haiti’s journey to this year’s 48-nation tournament. The film was executive produced by record producer and DJ Michael Brun and directed by Leo Volcy.

“You know, it’s 50 years later, and I’m an aging adult who has a whole other life,” Magloire, now 55, said in an interview with the Miami Herald. “I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about this.”

‘Is this still you?’

Every few years, he said, someone would come across the photographs of him standing with Haiti’s national men’s soccer team, nicknamed Les Grenadiers, during the 1974 World Cup in West Germany during their pregame ceremonies. Now, the photos are resurfacing “every couple of days.”

“Somebody sends me a photo and says, ‘Hey, I just saw this on social media. Is this still you?’ And I say, ‘Yes, it’s me.’ But it feels very far away from my life now.”

Magloire, who once dreamed of becoming a professional soccer career and has mixed feelings about the World Cup’s current state, nowadays spends more time thinking about movements on a stage than on a soccer field. After starting as a composer, he studied dance at the Ailey School after moving from Germany to New York in 1993. He is now the founder and artistic director of New Chamber Ballet, a contemporary dance company in New York.

“What we do at this point is no longer so easy to recreate by other dance companies,” he said. “But I think if you give me enough time, this is work that could be performed very well by Miami City Ballet.”

Still, the renewed attention to his childhood hasn’t been easy to process.

“I could go now and teach a class for a group of random 8-year-olds that will never be dancers and will never become famous, but coming home from that class will give me a feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment of having done something useful, than this entire World Cup rediscovery of my childhood photos,” he said. “It doesn’t give me the same kind of [feeling], however I discover it extremely fascinating and humorous that that is taking place.”

Haiti’s squad arrival in West Germany for 1974 World Cup

When Haiti’s squad arrived in Munich in on June 4, 1974, to prepare for the Caribbean nation’s first-ever World Cup appearance, Magloire would unexpectedly emerge as the team’s unofficial mascot. His life would become intertwined with Haiti’s soccer lore, a reminder that the country’s sporting story has often extended beyond its borders.

At the time, relatively few Haitians lived in West Germany. Magloire’s father, who went to the country on a scholarship to study, was among them. Wanting the players to feel welcome, members of the Haitian community were invited to greet the team at the airport.

“In 1974, coming to the airport meant you went out on the tarmac,” Magloire said, recounting the story that has become part of his family lore, along with the many newspaper clippings and photos of him during the historic tournament.

There was a red carpet, a Bavarian brass band and local dignitaries. And there were Magloire’s parents, Lionel and Elfrun Magloire, who brought along their young son.

“Because what are you going to do with your 3½-year-old kid?” he said with a laugh.

His German mother, who still lives in the country, also brought a soccer ball. Bored by the event, he took the ball and wandered off to amuse himself. That’s when a press photographer spotted him.

Soon, he was at the center of an impromptu photo shoot on the tarmac as the photographer had him pose with the soccer ball, then with the instruments. Later, as the team prepared to face powerhouse Italy in its opening match — a game that would later go down in history after Haitian player Emmanuel Sanon shattered Italian goalkeeper Dino Zoff’s world-record defensive streak — team officials invited him to participate in the pregame ceremonies as the Haitian national anthem played.

The image of the little Black boy carrying a soccer ball, wearing a Haiti jersey and a white cap emblazoned with “Haiti,” would resonate beyond West Germany as journalists covered Haiti’s improbable World Cup journey.

“Before you knew it, every single newspaper was writing about the Haitian team, and always with a photo of me and one of the players, or me standing with the players before the game,” said Magloire, who made appearances at all three Haiti matches.

But many of the reports got the details wrong. “They kind of made up stories of, ‘Oh, this is the story of one of the children of one of the players; this is the child of a team official, this is the child of a president.’ I mean, they got so many things [wrong],” he stated.

For a time, his family would track the inaccuracies, said Magloire, who admits to having no memory of those days, though the story was repeatedly told to him by his parents over the years.

Then Facebook and Instagram happened — and a new generation of Haitians began speculating about the identity of the boy in the photograph. The curiosity surged again after Haiti qualified for the World Cup by defeating Nicaragua in a match played in Curaçao because of violence at home. This time, the decades-old image would transform Magloire into an unlikely celebrity.

“When I heard Haiti made the World Cup,” he said, “I put two and two together and was like, ‘Oh, this is coming back,’ but I didn’t know in what form it would come back.”

The renewed attention has him feeling a mix of emotions, including ambivalence.

“I didn’t do anything for it,” he said, adding that he doesn’t feel like he’s contributed to Haitian history, at least not in a tangible way.

“To be paraded around as a cute 3-year-old does not give you a feeling of having really done anything,” Magloire added. “But I can see what it means to people.”

He recently watched a clip from Brun’s short film about the team on Instagram and saw the recreating of “the mini me on it.”

“I could see it means something,” Magloire said.

Photograph is more than a historical footnote

For Haitians, however, looking for positive news amid their homeland’s political turmoil and gang violence, the photograph has become more than a historical footnote.

“Miro feels like the spirit of our country,” said Volcy, the director, “certain, proud and present, just existing on that field like he belonged there. I wanted to honor that, let our future lead the way and have our warrior march behind him.”

Volcy, who recruited his nephew to recreate the image, while also using archival images, said the moment the idea of the film came to mind, “it felt like the ancestors were calling.”

Magloire, meanwhile, is still trying to make sense of his place in the story.

“It has so little to do with the real me that I find it curious and weird and funny, but I don’t go to bed at night and be like, ‘You did good today, Miro, because somebody looked at an old photo, and it made them feel better.’ It doesn’t work like that for me,” he said. “I wish I could, because you know, my life would be really wonderful right now, but I don’t have any sense of ownership over that story anymore.”

Haiti is scheduled to play three matches in this year’s World Cup. After Scotland, it will face Brazil on June 19 in Philadelphia and Morocco on June 24 in Atlanta.

Soccer is ‘magic’

Most of the players were born outside of Haiti, and most have never stepped foot in the country. Yet they feel like they are carrying the weight of an entire nation. That’s not much different from the feelings of the 1974 team. They faced expectations that extended beyond soccer when they arrived in West Germany under the dictatorship of Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, who wanted the team to burnish its image.

“Soccer was used as a political tool,” said Yves “Dadou” Jean-Bart, the former president of the Haitian Football Federation and one of three journalists assigned to cover the 1974 team at the World Cup.

Yet the regime’s investment in the sport also created opportunities at a time when many Haitians, including soccer players and doctors, were fleeing the country for exile. Soccer, he said, remains one of Haiti’s few unifying forces.

“It’s magic,” he said.

Today, as armed gangs displace communities and take over fields once used by young players, Jean-Bart worries about the future of the sport inside Haiti. Yet he hopes this World Cup appearance can inspire something larger. The moment carries echoes of that famous photograph from a half-century ago.

“I’m a dreamer,” Jean-Bart, 79, said. “While I am talking to you, I have on my Haiti jersey and a flag around my head.”

Getting to soccer’s biggest stage was never the ultimate goal, he said. It was developing the sport inside Haiti. But he always believed it would happen.

“I always believed we would arrive at a World Cup because we have a history, we have the past, we have a tradition,” said Jean-Bart. “And I believed it would be good for the country.”