Curacao to qualify for the 2026 World Cup: A football miracle.

The Curacao national team brilliantly qualified for the 2026 World Cup, a miracle for a country with a population of 155,000 and an area smaller than Phu Quoc Island.

History

November 18th marked a historic milestone for CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Football): Cuba drew 0-0 with Jamaica and qualified for the World Cup for the first time.

At the same time, Costa Rica and Honduras bid farewell to the tournament, while Haiti returned after their last appearance in the finals in Germany in 1974.

Curacao celebrates its historic ticket to the tournament. Photo: CNFT

Panama will also participate in the 2026 World Cup . Suriname and Jamaica will compete in the play-offs in March 2026 .

Notably, with the three host nations – the USA, Canada, and Mexico – receiving bye-qualifiers, the CONCACAF regional qualifiers have produced quite a few surprises.

What Curacao has achieved is truly a miracle. This is the country with the smallest population – around 155,000 people – to ever participate in the World Cup.

Curacao became the fourth team to participate in the World Cup for the first time, after Uzbekistan, Jordan, and Cabo Verde.

Furthermore, they set another record at the tournament held in North America : with an area of ​​only 444 km², this island located in the Caribbean Sea and very close to the coast of Venezuela is the smallest country ever to compete in the World Cup.

This means that the area of ​​Curacao is smaller than Phu Quoc Island (approximately 574 km²).

Curacao 's draw against Jamaica also highlighted another unique aspect of the upcoming World Cup.

Curacao is a Caribbean island belonging to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, so the country will be represented at the World Cup by two teams – the Netherlands and Curacao .

The people of Curacao hold Dutch passports and enjoy the same rights as European Union citizens, even though this island in the Dutch Antilles is not part of the EU.

Advocaat the hero

The Curacao team is led by Dick Advocaat, a legendary coach of Dutch football .

Advocaat previously managed the Netherlands at the 1994 World Cup in the USA, where the team reached the quarter-finals and lost to Brazil – the eventual champions with stars like Romario and Bebeto – after Brazil defeated Italy on penalties in the final.

The Curação squad mainly consists of players currently playing in the Dutch national league. Advocaat has previously managed several big clubs such as PSV, Dortmund, and Rangers.

Coach Advocaat is a hero for Curacao. Photo: CNFT

Advocaat had stints working in Asia, with the South Korean and Iraqi national teams, but without much success.

In the summer of 2023, Advocaat was unemployed after leaving Den Haag. He proactively contacted Curacao in 2024 – the team had a vacant head coach position at the time.

“He’s fantastic. As soon as he arrived, he brought so much experience,” said striker Kenji Gorre, who scored two goals in the qualifying campaign, about Advocaat.

Gorre proudly stated, “Dick’s belief in us and in the dream of Curacao also shows the potential he saw. We are truly grateful to him. Now, we are walking on the path of destiny that we have chosen.”

Advocaat brought along an assistant he knew from Cor Pot, and also hoped to maintain some local knowledge.

In 2019, Curacao played the King's Cup final against Vietnam (then coached by Park Hang Seo) in Thailand, winning 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in regular time.

Three years ago, Curacao lost to Indonesia 2-3 and 1-2 in two consecutive friendly matches. Now, the team nicknamed "The Blue Family" has made remarkable progress in qualifying for the World Cup.

The upcoming World Cup could be another historic milestone as Advocaat, at 78, could become the oldest coach in the tournament's history, surpassing Otto Rehhagel when he coached Greece in 2010 (71 years old). If Romania makes it through the play-offs, the record would belong to Mircea Lucescu (80 years old).

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/curacao-gianh-ve-world-cup-2026-ve-dep-bong-da-2464680.html