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Fast Money & Foreign Objects
21 March 2014 Last updated at 20:27 ET
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Joe Gaetjens - the footballer who disappeared
By Alison Gee BBC World Service
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In today's Magazine
Joe Gaetjens made his name on 29 June 1950. "Out of nowhere apparently, my father came and went head first and hit the ball hard enough to change its direction - so the goalie from the England team was going one way and the ball went the other way," says his eldest son Lesly.
The 15,000 football fans in Brazil's Belo Horizonte stadium went wild - moments earlier they thought the US didn't have even the slightest chance of beating England. Even the US coach had described his side as sheep ready to be slaughtered.
While the England players were professionals, the Americans were part-timers - one was a teacher, another drove a hearse for a living and Gaetjens was an accountancy student.
He was born in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, in 1924 to a relatively well-off family. He loved football and by the age of 14 was signed up to the Etoile Haitienne team where he became known for his goal-scoring headers.
But his parents felt he couldn't rely on a football career to make a living, so in 1947 they sent him to New York's Columbia University.
While he was there, he took a job washing dishes in a restaurant - partly for the money but mostly because the owner also owned the Brookhattan soccer team. Gaetjens was their star striker and he soon came to the attention of the US national coaches.
"During those days, as long as you were willing to sign a paper saying that you will become a citizen of the United States then you will be included on the team," says Lesly.
Continue reading the main story
Find out more
Lesly Gaetjens spoke to Whistledown Productions for the BBC World Service programme Sporting Witness.
When one of his team-mates took a shot at the goal, Gaetjens was ready to finish it off. There's no footage of the winning goal - most of the cameras were at the other end of the pitch where they expected the action to take place.
Back home, his family didn't even know he was in the team until they heard he had scored on the radio. The glory didn't last though - the US lost their next game and were eliminated.
In the end, Gaetjens decided not to take US citizenship and pursued his football career in France where he spent two relatively unsuccessful seasons. By 1954 he had returned home to Haiti.
Joe Gaetjens (centre) with friends in New York
"In Haiti everybody was happy and partying - apparently all the players from all the teams gathered at the airport to receive him - it was like a national holiday kind of thing," says Lesly.
Injury soon brought Gaetjens' playing career to an end but he became a successful coach, helped young people get involved in soccer and also ran a chain of dry-cleaners. He married Liliane Defay and the couple had three children.
Continue reading the main story
Haiti: key facts
"I remember seeing him play and I remember kicking a soccer ball with him before the games... I remember planting trees - he loved planting all kinds of fruit trees at the house."
But these were politically troubled times. In 1957, Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier was elected president. He set about consolidating power by force, establishing his own personal militia to target rivals - the Tontons Macoutes took their name from the Haitian slang for bogeymen.
Share this page
Joe Gaetjens - the footballer who disappeared
By Alison Gee BBC World Service
Continue reading the main story
In today's Magazine
- Afghanistan's first spaceman returns home
- Mexico's mariachi academy run by American Watch
- Neither rare, nor earths
- What medieval Europe did with its teenagers
Joe Gaetjens made his name on 29 June 1950. "Out of nowhere apparently, my father came and went head first and hit the ball hard enough to change its direction - so the goalie from the England team was going one way and the ball went the other way," says his eldest son Lesly.
The 15,000 football fans in Brazil's Belo Horizonte stadium went wild - moments earlier they thought the US didn't have even the slightest chance of beating England. Even the US coach had described his side as sheep ready to be slaughtered.
While the England players were professionals, the Americans were part-timers - one was a teacher, another drove a hearse for a living and Gaetjens was an accountancy student.
He was born in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, in 1924 to a relatively well-off family. He loved football and by the age of 14 was signed up to the Etoile Haitienne team where he became known for his goal-scoring headers.
But his parents felt he couldn't rely on a football career to make a living, so in 1947 they sent him to New York's Columbia University.
While he was there, he took a job washing dishes in a restaurant - partly for the money but mostly because the owner also owned the Brookhattan soccer team. Gaetjens was their star striker and he soon came to the attention of the US national coaches.
"During those days, as long as you were willing to sign a paper saying that you will become a citizen of the United States then you will be included on the team," says Lesly.
Continue reading the main story
Find out more
Lesly Gaetjens spoke to Whistledown Productions for the BBC World Service programme Sporting Witness.
- Listen via BBC iPlayer from 16:30 GMT
- Browse the Sporting Witness podcast archive
- More from BBC World Service
When one of his team-mates took a shot at the goal, Gaetjens was ready to finish it off. There's no footage of the winning goal - most of the cameras were at the other end of the pitch where they expected the action to take place.
Back home, his family didn't even know he was in the team until they heard he had scored on the radio. The glory didn't last though - the US lost their next game and were eliminated.
In the end, Gaetjens decided not to take US citizenship and pursued his football career in France where he spent two relatively unsuccessful seasons. By 1954 he had returned home to Haiti.
"In Haiti everybody was happy and partying - apparently all the players from all the teams gathered at the airport to receive him - it was like a national holiday kind of thing," says Lesly.
Injury soon brought Gaetjens' playing career to an end but he became a successful coach, helped young people get involved in soccer and also ran a chain of dry-cleaners. He married Liliane Defay and the couple had three children.
Continue reading the main story
Haiti: key facts
- Gained independence from France in 1804
- The poorest nation in the Americas
- Voodoo recognised as a religion on a par with other faiths in 2003
- Presidents unseated by coups in 1988 and 1991
- 2010 earthquake was Haiti's worst in 200 years
- An outbreak of cholera later that year killed more than 8,000 people triggering violent protests
"I remember seeing him play and I remember kicking a soccer ball with him before the games... I remember planting trees - he loved planting all kinds of fruit trees at the house."
But these were politically troubled times. In 1957, Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier was elected president. He set about consolidating power by force, establishing his own personal militia to target rivals - the Tontons Macoutes took their name from the Haitian slang for bogeymen.