Joe Gaetjens
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Joseph Edouard Gaetjens (b. March 19, 1924, Port-au-Prince, Haiti - d. 1964??, Haiti) was a Haitian soccer player who played for the United States national team in the 1950 FIFA World Cup, scoring the winning goal in the stunning 1-0 upset of England.
Born in Haiti to a Haitian mother and Belgian father, Gaetjens went to New York City in the late 1940s to study accounting at Columbia University on a scholarship from the Haitian government. While there he played for Brookhattan of the American Soccer League, winning the league's scoring title. His success for the team attracted the attention of U.S. Soccer, and Gaetjens made the national team for the 1950 World Cup.
Gaetjens played three games at the World Cup, but easily the most memorable was one of the greatest World Cup upsets in history, in which Gaetjens scored the decisive goal of a 1-0 victory in which the American soccer team defeated the hugely favored English at Belo Horizonte.
Although Gaetjens was not a U.S. citizen, he had declared his intention of becoming one, and under the rules of the United States Soccer Football Association at that time was allowed to play. However, Gaetjens never actually did gain American citizenship.
At the end of the World Cup, Gaetjens moved to France where he played briefly for Troyes, before returning to Haiti in 1954 to become a spokesman and entrepreneur. Gaetjens remained active in soccer, playing for the Haiti national team December 27, 1953 in a World Cup Qualifier against Mexico.
On July 8, 1964, Gaetjens was arrested by the nation's notorious Tontons macoutes secret police and is presumed, like thousands of other Haitians, to have been killed by the death squad.
Joe Gaetjens was posthumously inducted into the United States National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1976.
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United States squad - 1950 World Cup | |
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1 Bahr | 2 Borghi | 3 Colombo | 4 Coombes | 5 Craddock | 6 Gaetjens | 7 Gard | 8 Keough | 9 McIlvenny | 10 Maca | 11 Pariani | 12 Souza | 13 Souza | 14 Wallace | 15 Wolanin | Coach: Jeffrey |
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gaetjens, Joe |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Joseph Edouard Gaetjens |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Professional soccer player |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 29, 1924 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Port-au-Prince, Haiti |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 8 1964?? |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Haiti |
