{"id":4048,"date":"2024-05-05T09:00:04","date_gmt":"2024-05-05T08:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=4048"},"modified":"2024-05-05T10:13:18","modified_gmt":"2024-05-05T09:13:18","slug":"remembering-joseph-gaetjens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2024\/05\/05\/remembering-joseph-gaetjens\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Joseph Gaetjens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (July 6th<\/sup> 2013)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Great Idea<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI agree\u201d, the BBC\u02bcs South America football correspondent Tim Vickery says regarding our idea that Brasil\u02bcs World Cup should properly remember and appreciate the football legacy of Joseph Gaetjens at the semi-final of next year\u02bcs World Cup in Belo Horizionte \u2013 the scene of Gaetjens\u02bc triumph. \u201cI think that would be wonderful. It would be wonderful and it\u02bcs so appropriate as I say given the relationship between Brasil and Haiti. No I\u02bcm all in favour. I think it\u02bcs a great idea\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CIMG7853\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Empower-Sport makes no secret of its belief that more needs to be done by football to remember Gaetjens. He was inducted into the sport\u02bcs Hall of Fame in the USA, but so were the rest of the Miracle Team of 1950. Sixty years after his remarkable achievement in Belo Horizonte his son Lesly accepted a coveted award award on behalf of his murdered father. The National Soccer Coaches\u02bc Association of America gave its All America Award for 2010 posthumously to Gaetjens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We believe that this recognition is far too little. Football and FIFA must make sure that Gaetjens\u02bc legacy is properly honoured. Brasil\u02bcs World Cup is the ideal time and place to do this. At the very least the semi-final in Belo Horizonte on July 8th<\/sup> 2014 should begin with a minute\u02bcs silence or applause to honour the memory and legacy of Joseph Gaetjens. Vickery agrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CIMG7871\"<\/a>
Tim Vickery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seismic Shocks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaetjens sent a seismic shock through the world of football by scoring the goal that beat the mighty England \u2013 competing in their first World Cup \u2013 64 years ago. A team of part-time footballers humbled a team thought to be one of the best in the world. It was so unbelievable that some refused to believe the score and reported that England had beaten the USA 10-0. In fact the impossible had happened. Gaetjens\u02bc 38th<\/sup> minute goal had beaten England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaetjens never received US citizenship. He departed for France before eventually returning to his native Haiti where his story reached its tragic and deplorable conclusion. Gaetjens was kidnapped by the Ton Ton Macoutes \u2013 the notoriously brutal and venal thugs of Haitian dictator Fran\u00e7ois (Papa Doc) Duvalier \u2013 on July 8th<\/sup> 1964. He was taken to the notorious Fort Dimanache Prison and was never seen alive again. There is no doubt that a football icon was murdered by cowardly thugs in order to steal his laundry business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legacy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u02bcs such a fabulous story and you might think that it shows the United States at its most positive in the way that he was involved in the team and he had this role in scoring the goal and the fact that he was forgotten afterwards, I think is a shame\u201d, Vickery told us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CIMG7851\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gaetjens was remembered fondly by Brasilians \u2013 he was chaired off the pitch in Belo Horizonte by jubilant Brasilian fans who knew they had witnessed something special. Even Brasil\u02bcs greatest player at that tournament remembers him. Gaetjens was playing in Paris at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember talking once to Zizinho who was Brasil\u02bcs star player in that World Cup in 1950 and he told me, \u02bbI was in Paris once and a fellow tapped me on the shoulder and said, \u201cOh I\u02bcm Gaetjens\u201d\u02bc, Vickery says, \u201cand you know for someone who achieved something so wonderful to be so forgotten after the tragedy of what happened to him back in Haiti, now that\u02bcs especially pertinent given the fact that Brasil has a responsibility with Haiti because the United Nations Peace-keeping Force which is in Haiti is largely from Brasil\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The links between Haiti and Brasil are strong but controversial. \u201cThere are Haitian immigrants coming into the country \u2013 that\u02bcs another controversial subject because Brasil\u02bcs perhaps not entirely happy about the quantity of them coming in\u201d, Vickery said. \u201cI was at the Italy Haiti game just before this tournament [the Confederations\u02bc Cup] started and there were certainly a few Haitians cheering on their team, so given the relationship between Brasil and Haiti, given the fact that the World Cup next year, 64 years afterwards will stage games in the city where Gaetjens scored his goal, I think it\u02bcs entirely appropriate that something be done\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (July 6th 2013) A Great Idea \u201cI agree\u201d, the BBC\u02bcs South America football correspondent Tim Vickery says regarding our idea that Brasil\u02bcs World [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[724,275,722,720,723,256,721,276],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4048"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4049,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4048\/revisions\/4049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}