By Hira Humayun, CNN
(CNN) — When gangs set fire to the FIFA Goal Center in Haiti’s capital this year, it wasn’t just a key sports ground that went up in flames. It was the center of Haitian youth sports, a training ground for talent and home to the dreams held by young athletes in a country battered by violence.
Months earlier, Louicius Deedson –– who used to be one of those budding athletes –– had helped make history with the Haitian national team in Curaçao. They beat Nicaragua in the World Cup qualifier and secured Haiti’s place in the world’s biggest single-sport event for the first time in over 50 years.
The streets of Port-au-Prince came alive with euphoric fans in a brief moment of respite that punctuated the turbulence and overlapping crises that have engulfed the country.
“It’s been a long time since you see Haitian people united like this,” said Deedson, 25, who scored one of the two winning goals for Haiti in the November match. It is a remarkable achievement for the national team that had to train abroad due to the country’s violent instability.
Gangs control an estimated 80 to 90% of the capital, according to the United Nations, including areas home to some of the country’s biggest stadiums. Sylvio Cator in downtown Port-au-Prince was where the national team trained for decades, even for its last and only World Cup stint in the 70s.
But it has not been used by the team for years as armed groups have become increasingly powerful in the country, especially after the 2021 assassination of former Haitian President Jovenel Moise left a power vacuum.
The stadium is now used by people seeking shelter from gangs, who now control key routes to and from the capital, choking off vital supplies in the Caribbean nation grappling with a deepening hunger crisis. Fear permeates every aspect of life in parts of Haiti and the sports world is no exception.
Deedson has played at stadiums now under gang control, and laments that Haitian kids aspiring to make the national team one day can’t use those vital facilities.
The Haitian midfielder who now plays for Major League Soccer’s FC Dallas is from Port-au-Prince’s Tabarre district. The aftermath of the 2010 earthquake and armed gang attacks made daily life tough, but Deedson didn’t see the worst of it. As a young teen he moved to the United States to pursue his soccer career and an education.
“I think moving to the US was the best thing for me at the moment,” he told CNN.
The game goes on
Many of the national team players are born, raised and reside abroad in countries like France where they play for European soccer leagues. Even when representing Haiti during the World Cup qualifiers, the unrest in the country has meant they have not been able to play any home games, practice in Haitian stadiums, nor could their French coach travel to the Caribbean nation. They are instead training in Florida and New Jersey in the lead-up to the tournament.
Woodensky Pierre is one of the few players on the national team who grew up and still lives in Haiti – and the only one who currently plays in the country’s soccer league.
He hails from the impoverished Cite Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, where he began playing soccer with his father as a child, before leaving the neighborhood to live with his mother. Like many other Haitian kids he faced financial barriers to a promising soccer career.
“There was a moment where I felt like I would never make it to this point because things were very difficult, I had no support, nothing,” he told CNN over Zoom from