World Cup 2026: Curacao, home to just 156k, make Fifa history

“Only when a couple on of us had heard of them.” And even out those that had did non live what to expect against Curacao, said Sunil Chhetri. It didn’t take long to find out: in 18 minutes of that Kings Cup match in Buriram, Thailand, India were trailing 0-2. Chhetri pulled one back from the penalty spot but Curacao won 3-1.Six years later, the tiny island in the Caribbean Sea have qualified for the 2026 World Cup, the smallest nation to have ever to have done that. As per Worldometer, Curacao’s population is 1.85 lakh making it the 189th most populous country on the planet and comfortably bettering the record Iceland (population 3.5 lakh) had by making the 2018 World Cup.“They had a number of technical players and physically they were solid,” Chhetri, the former India captain, said on Wednesday after Curacao’s nerve-shredding 0-0 with Jamaica in Kingston took them to the top of the four-team group with 12 points. Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago had prior experience of qualifying for the World Cup but Curacao were the group’s only unbeaten side. They beat Jamaica 2-0 at home and drew home and away with Trinidad and Tobago.“We didn’t know they had players of European descent,” said Chhetri, recently retired from international football for the second time. Igor Stimac did. “I knew they had players involved in serious football in Holland,” he said, referring to a connection that can be traced back to the 17th century when Curacao was a Dutch colony.Curacao became a self-governing country in the Kingdom of Netherlands in 2010. In the current squad, former Manchester United academy player Tahith Chong is the only player born in the island. The rest, including five green lit by FIFA in August, are from Holland. The players are allowed dual nationalities.Tapping into Curacaoan footballers of Dutch heritage began in 2004. “Before that, it was with the local players who were not professional. From that moment, we have seen an enormous growth in the team,” Gilbert Martina, the Curacao Football Federation president, told “The Athletic”.The aim was simple: get players not good enough to represent the senior Dutch side. With that they had rocked India but Stimac said, “we were not too far behind in the second. I remember young Amarjit playing fearlessly.” He was referring to Amarjit Singh Kiyam, then a promising defensive midfielder who had led India in the 2017 under-17 World Cup. It was on Kiyam to mark Leandro Bacuna, now Curacao’s skipper.Bacuna, 34, has played for Aston Villa and now plays in the Turkish second division. With 68 internationals, he is also their most capped footballer. Along with Jurien Garri and Eloy Room, Bacuna was one of the three players in the squad against Jamaica who played against India.Stimac was speaking from Sarajevo, en route Friday’s away match in the Bosnian Premier League where he now coaches the current leaders HSK Zrinjski Mostar; Chettri from Bengaluru. But both clearly remembered the match from June 2019. They had their reasons: it was against Curacao that Chhetri became India’s most capped international and it was Stimac’s first match as India head coach, a position he held till June 2024 when he was sacked.“They were good, don’t get me wrong, but they were less of a team and more a group of excellent individual performers. I am sure that’s changed now, else they wouldn’t have qualified,” said Chhetri.Under Dick Advocaat, who joined in 2023 after calling the federation to ask if it was interested, it sure has. Because they come through the Dutch system, the players know each other and it feels like a big family, Juninho Bacuna, Leandro’s younger brother and a first 11 player in Kingston, has said.Advocaat, 78, coached Holland in the 1994 World Cup, also held in USA (this edition will be co-hosted by USA, Canada and Mexico; three countries from Curacao’s region who qualify automatically) and took South Korea to the 2006 edition His mantra for the team: if you cannot win, do not lose. That is what Curacao did to qualify for the first 48-team World Cup. Jamaica hit the framework thrice and had a stoppage-time penalty decision overturned by VAR.This World Cup will have Uzbekistan, Jordan and Cape Verde (another team that has successfully tapped into its diaspora) also as first-time entrants, Haiti back after 52 years and the possibility of Iraq joining them after ending a 40-year wait. But it will take some beating what Curacao have achieved. “What an adventure,” Advocaat, who at 78 will be the oldest manager in a World Cup, has said.When the “Blue Wave” met the Blue Tigers, Curacao were 82nd in the FIFA rankings; India 101. There is a lot that rankings do not reveal but it bears mentioning that Curacao are still 82nd and India are 136th. Hours before Curacao qualified, India, its top league stalled, lost to Bangladesh for the first time in 22 years.