Ricardo Adé Meets 74-Year-Old Wilner Piquant as Haiti Bridges a 52-Year World Cup Gap
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 6
Ricardo Adé Meets 74-Year-Old Wilner Piquant as Haiti Bridges a 52-Year World Cup Gap
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 6
Summary
Miami hosted a rare cross-generational meeting as Haiti co-captain Ricardo Adé had lunch with 1974 World Cup goalkeeper Wilner Piquant and other former national-team veterans.
Adé sought out the players after hearing some of Haiti’s last World Cup squad lived in South Florida, using his lone day off after a final warm-up match to arrange the visit.
Piquant, now 74, uses a wheelchair after a stroke and has limited speech, but greeted Adé with visible delight at the Liberty City cafe gathering.
The meeting underscored Haiti’s long absence from soccer’s biggest stage: this year’s tournament ends a 52-year gap since the country’s only previous World Cup appearance in 1974.