Discover the World Cup’s Underdog: The Tiny Nation Training Barefoot on Sandy Shores

Curacao is capturing hearts as the World Cup’s most astonishing underdog story.

This Caribbean island nation, home to just 158,000 residents but boasting a nightlife that rivals major cities like London and New York, is poised to make history in six days as the smallest team to ever compete in the tournament.

Regardless of the outcome, the Blue Wave is determined to make an unforgettable impression with their unique flair. In fact, one player has boldly declared their ambition to capture the championship trophy.

The team, predominantly composed of players born in the Netherlands, has been honing their skills barefoot on the island’s beaches, just steps from sunbeds and rustic seaside shacks. Their training sessions feature Brazilian-style volley games, sand push-ups, and playful splashes in the sparkling turquoise sea, all accompanied by the sound of laughter carried on the ocean breeze.

Their journey seems almost surreal. Recently, they captured the internet’s attention as they traveled in a rickety school bus, enthusiastically leaning out of windowless frames and rhythmically tapping the vehicle’s sides. This Sunday, they face the formidable German team at Houston Stadium, a massive venue with a capacity of 72,000, nearly half of Curacao’s entire population.

An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 fans will accompany the team to North America, while countless more will gather back home at lively watch parties across the idyllic island, situated about 40 miles from Venezuela’s coast.

‘The island will shut down when the games are on,’ one fan, Brenton Balentien, told The Athletic. 

‘For us, it’s life. We are a tiny island, everyone here is like family, accomplishing something as big as qualifying for the World Cup, it means the world. Besides seeing the birth of my children, this is the best thing that has ever happened to me.’ 

This is a team who have not forgotten their roots. In the build-up to their debut, the players have been hanging out with fans, taking selfies, doing meet-and-greets, and signing shirts and balls. There is a sense on the island that the players in some way belong to them, that they are at one with the populace in a way more major nations cannot achieve. 

They arrive full of optimism. In their qualifying campaign, Curacao went unbeaten across their 10 matches, seeing off the likes of Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. That will give them confidence that they can at least compete in this tournament, though a group including Germany, Ivory Coast, and Ecuador looks forbidding. 

In November they drew with Jamaica to book their place in the expanded 48-team tournament. That sent them into seventh heaven – even the crowd control police were joining in the festivities at full time – while it condemned Jamaica, managed by former England manager Steve McClaren, to the play-offs, where they lost out to DR Congo. 

Getting the better of Jamaica was no mean feat. Curacao played away from home and packed two planes with their most passionate fans to make a noise in the 35,000-seater stadium in Kingston, but most of the crowd was behind McClaren’s team. That didn’t stop the visitors, arrayed in a sea of blue, from silencing them. 

‘I think God was with us that night,’ said Leandro Bacuna, Curacao’s captain. 

‘Because you’ve seen the game, everyone’s seen the game. Couple of balls on the post … Everywhere. But our keeper was great, so I think it was meant for us. It was a story written for us.’

The man who has masterminded Curacao’s debut run is Dick Advocaat, a 78-year-old Dutch veteran who will be the oldest man in history to manage at the World Cup.

Advocaat – who used to manage Sunderland – actually stepped down in February to be present for his sick daughter and was replaced by Fred Rutten, but he returned to the post in May 2026. He’s not just here to make up the numbers, and neither are his squad. 

Only Tahith Chong was born in Curacao, while the rest of their squad comes from the Netherlands but are all connected to the island via their parents. 

The island didn’t even have a national team until 2010 – they were included under the banner of the now-disbanded Netherlands Antilles – so it has been remarkable surge onto the world stage. 

Their team is short on star quality. The most recognisable name is Leandro Bacuna, who spent three years with Aston Villa, but this campaign will be more about team effort.

Curacao are the third-lowest-ranked team in the competition, sat 82nd in FIFA’s rankings. Only New Zealand and Haiti are lower. But given that they were 150th a decade ago, they’re used to upsetting the odds. 

Crucially, the confidence is coursing within them that they can cause a shock. Right-back Livano Comenencia, who plies his trade with Zurich in Switzerland, told FIFA: ‘We’ve been brought up playing the Dutch way and we’ve got real quality and excellent technique. We’re going to surprise a lot of people.

‘As soon as the game gets under way, anything can happen. It’s always 11 against 11, not five against 11. Anything’s possible, even against Germany. I think four points will be enough to see us through to the next stage of the competition, a win and a draw. We’ll do everything in our power to make it happen.’

Covering a total area of 444km squared, Curacao is so small you could fit nearly four of them inside Greater London – and the island only has a population of just over 150,000 people

‘For us, qualifying for the World Cup is already a huge milestone, because we’ve never achieved anything on this scale before and we’ll be the smallest country in tournament history. 

‘A lot of people already see us as winners. But we’ve got a winning mentality and we’re not here to just make up the numbers. We’re going to the World Cup with the intention of winning it.’