The worst soccer teams in the world – Cuba

the golden age

Once upon a time Cuba was one of the best teams in the Americas. In the early 1930s, the Island finished first in the I Central American and Caribbean Games. They defeated Costa Rica and Honduras. Later, between July 4 and 19, 1938, the Cuban soccer team became the best Caribbean team in the history of soccer by finishing seventh in the Third FIFA World Championship in Paris, the capital of France. During that event, Cuba had defeated Romania. However, the Island was not seen again in the World Cup.

Country Profile: Cuba

This Spanish-speaking nation is located in the Caribbean Sea. Covers 42,800 square miles; The largest single island in Latin America. There are at least 12 million people. Havana is the capital of the country. Politically, Cuba is a dictatorship.

Since 1959 Cuba, formerly a colony of Spain, has become a Marxist dictatorship. In practice, the Island is governed by the Castro family. Thereafter, the nation’s dictator, Fidel Castro Ruz, was chosen as the first pro-Soviet leader in the Western Hemisphere. From the 1960s to the 1980s, the USSR (now Russia) provided extensive military and economic assistance.

Unfortunately, it is one of the states that has committed the most brutal human rights abuses in the Third World since the 1950s. As a result, the Cuban tyranny is an international pariah on the world stage, along with Iran, Zimbabwe, Burma and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (also known as North Korea). According to Reports Without Borders, Cuba is one of the “15 enemies of the Internet on Earth.” For political and economic reasons, more than 250 athletes, including Olympic champions, have left the country since 1990, the most among any developing nation in the world. Economically, it has become heavily dependent on Venezuelan aid since the 2000s.

FIFA World Cup

Cuba’s national team has not qualified for the FIFA World Cup since 1938. In recent decades, many Caribbean and Central American nations, from El Salvador and Honduras to Haiti and Trinidad Tobago, have already surpassed Cuba. In the early 1970s, the Salvadoran national team was the winner of the CONCACAF Men’s Soccer Tournament and was therefore one of the 16 teams in the FIFA championship in Mexico City. Thereafter, twelve years later, El Salvador, together with Honduras, participated in their second Men’s World Cup in Barcelona (Spain). For the first time in 44 years, Haiti, a virtual unknown before 1974, secured its place in soccer history when it competed in World Cup X in Munich, West Germany. Starting in 1990, Costa Rica has twice participated in the world event. In the 2002 FIFA tournament, the Central Americans finished in 19th place (out of 32 teams).

Unlike neighboring Cuba, Jamaica qualified for the World Cup in the late 1990s. The Jamaican team placed 22nd in the FIFA championship, ahead of Scotland, Saudi Arabia and Japan. Subsequently, Trinidad & Tobago, a cricket-loving island, participated in the 2006 World Cup. Meanwhile, Honduras qualified for South Africa 2010. Honduras, one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere, made its World Cup debut. World in the early 1980s.

From 1962 until the late 1980s, the sport in Cuba had undergone an abrupt change when the USSR and other Marxist states sent up to 300 coaches to the Island. Also during that period, the Spanish-speaking nation received more money per capita to promote sports than any other nation in the world, including South Korea, China and Greece. At the same time, various soccer coaches, from Hungarians to Soviets, arrived in Cuba. Meanwhile, the Marxist government sends a large number of national squads to Eastern Europe, North Korea, and the Soviet Union. Havana also hosted many international tournaments. But despite all this, the Cuban soccer team did not qualify for the FIFA World Cup. But that was only the beginning of the tragedy.

A nightmare

From the 1990s to the 2000s, only a handful of soccer players did not escape Cuba. In the early 1990s, Fernando Griñan, one of the most popular players on the island, requested political asylum abroad. But Griñan was not the only one. In 1998, Eduardo Sebrango fled from Cuba to Canada. A short time later, Alberto Delgado and Pérez and Rey Ángel Martínez defected from their team during the 2002 Gold Cup in the United States. Three years later, Maykel Galindo escaped from the island. Likewise, between 2007 and 2008 Osvaldo Alonso, Lester More, Pedro Faife and Reinier Alcántara had left Havana. In March 2008, seven players requested political asylum in the United States: Manuel Miranda, Erlys García, Yenier Bermúdez, Yordany Alvarez, Loanny Duarte, Yendri Díaz and Eder Roldan. As a result, Cuba failed to qualify for South Africa 2010.