The Most Famous
SOCCER PLAYERS from Haiti
This page contains a list of the greatest Haitian Soccer Players. The pantheon dataset contains 16,880 Soccer Players, 12 of which were born in Haiti. This makes Haiti the birth place of the 90th most number of Soccer Players behind Gabon and Thailand.
Top 10
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Haitian Soccer Players of all time. This list of famous Haitian Soccer Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Haitian Soccer Players.
1. Emmanuel Sanon (1951 - 2008)
With an HPI of 50.51, Emmanuel Sanon is the most famous Haitian Soccer Player. His biography has been translated into 22 different languages on wikipedia.
Emmanuel "Manno" Sanon (25 June 1951 – 21 February 2008) was a Haitian professional footballer who played as a striker. He starred in the Haiti national team winning the 1973 CONCACAF Championship. Haiti qualified for the finals of the 1974 FIFA World Cup. Though they lost all three matches Sanon scored twice in the tournament. His goal against Italy when he ran onto a pass from Philippe Vorbe was the first conceded by Italian keeper Dino Zoff in 1,142 minutes of football. Sanon won his home national championship in 1971 with top-level Don Bosco. He then won the Belgian Cup in the Belgian Pro League in 1979 with the K. Beerschot V.A.C. Sanon is among the "Les 100 Héros de la Coupe du Monde" (100 Heroes of the World Cup), which included the top 100 World Cup Players from 1930 to 1990, a list drawn up in 1994 by the France Football magazine based exclusively on their performances at World Cup level.
2. Ernst Jean-Joseph (1948 - 2020)
With an HPI of 46.02, Ernst Jean-Joseph is the 2nd most famous Haitian Soccer Player. His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.
Ernst Jean-Joseph (11 June 1948 – 14 August 2020) was a Haitian football midfielder who played for Haiti in the 1974 FIFA World Cup. He played for Violette A.C. and briefly for Chicago Sting. In the summer of 1976, he played in the National Soccer League with Ottawa Tigers. Described as a "red-haired mulatto" by Brian Glanville, Jean-Joseph failed a doping test after Haiti's opening match with Italy in 1974. After first contending that he had received a “lot of pills” from his physician in Haiti for treatment of asthma (and being contradicted by the team doctor, who told the media he had no such ailment), he admitted that he had used a stimulant containing phenmetrazine to improve his performance. Jean-Joseph was the first player to be suspended for using a banned substance in the history of the World Cup. The vice-president of the Haitian FA, Major Acedius St. Louis, was also the commander of the Leopards, a notorious elite battalion of the Haitian army under Jean-Claude Duvalier’s personal command. Haitian officials dragged Jean-Joseph out of the Grünwald Sports School in Munich where the team had been staying, beat him, and held him over night at the Sheraton Hotel and flew him back to Haiti. The terrified Jean-Joseph had made several phone calls to a sympathetic hostess who passed on the information to the designated team attaché, Kurt Renner. The World Cup organizing committee, furious at Renner for telling the story to the media, removed him from his post. Jean-Joseph's World Cup experience was not the end of his international career. Jean-Joseph played in seven 1978 World Cup qualifiers and one 1982 World Cup qualifier, a 1–0 win over Netherlands Antilles on 12 September 1980 in Port-au-Prince. Jean-Joseph later became manager of Violette A.C.
3. Joe Gaetjens (1924 - 1964)
With an HPI of 44.46, Joe Gaetjens is the 3rd most famous Haitian Soccer Player. His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.
Joseph Edouard Gaetjens ( GAY-jenz; March 19, 1924 – July 10, 1964 [presumed]) was a soccer player who played as a center forward. Born in Haiti, he represented its national team before and after playing for the United States team in the 1950 FIFA World Cup, in which he scored the winning goal in the 1–0 upset of England. Gaetjens won his home national championship in 1942 and 1944 with top-level Etoile Haïtienne. He then moved to the American Soccer League (ASL) and led all players with 18 goals in 15 games for New York's Brookhattan during the 1949–50 season. He was posthumously inducted into the United States National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1976. Gaetjens is among the Les 100 Héros de la Coupe du Monde ("100 Heroes of the World Cup"), which included the top 100 World Cup Players from 1930 to 1990, a list drawn up in 1994 by the France Football magazine based exclusively on their performances at World Cup level.
4. Claude Barthélemy (1945 - 2020)
With an HPI of 44.18, Claude Barthélemy is the 4th most famous Haitian Soccer Player. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
Claude Barthélemy (9 May 1945 – 6 April 2020) was a Haitian footballer who played at both professional and international levels as a striker. He played for AS Capoise between 1961 and 1964, then joined Racing Club Haitien until 1967, and played one season for the Detroit Cougars in 1968. He played for the national team between 1965 and 1977, including two games at the 1974 FIFA World Cup. Barthélemy died in 2020 in New Jersey.
5. Guy François (1947 - 2019)
With an HPI of 41.89, Guy François is the 5th most famous Haitian Soccer Player. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Guy François (18 September 1947 – 3 June 2019) was a Haitian football midfielder who played for Haiti in the 1974 FIFA World Cup. He also played for Violette A.C.
6. Arsène Auguste (1951 - 1993)
With an HPI of 40.80, Arsène Auguste is the 6th most famous Haitian Soccer Player. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
Arsène Auguste (3 February 1951 – 20 March 1993) was a Haitian international footballer who represented Haiti in the 1974 FIFA World Cup. He played professional club football with Racing Club Haïtien in Haiti and New Jersey Brewers, Tampa Bay Rowdies and Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the United States. Auguste scored the game-winning goal in the 66th minute of a 2–0 victory for Tampa Bay in the Soccer Bowl '75. In 1978 and 1980 he was part of the losing side in the Soccer Bowl finals, once each with Tampa Bay and Fort Lauderdale. On both occasions his side fell to the New York Cosmos, by scores of 1–3 and 0–3, respectively. In 1986, he again signed with the Rowdies, then playing in the American Indoor Soccer Association. Auguste played in 15 World Cup qualifying matches for Haiti from 1973 to 1981, the last of these being a 1–1 draw with Mexico in the 1981 CONCACAF Championship in Tegucigalpa. He died of a heart attack on 20 March 1993 while mowing his yard in Miami, Florida.
7. Pierre Bayonne (1949 - )
With an HPI of 38.55, Pierre Bayonne is the 7th most famous Haitian Soccer Player. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Pierre Bayonne (born 11 June 1949) is a retired Haitian footballer. Bayonne, formerly a member of Violette Athletic Club, competed with the Haiti national football team at the 1974 FIFA World Cup.
8. Jean-Jacques Pierre (1981 - )
With an HPI of 30.74, Jean-Jacques Pierre is the 8th most famous Haitian Soccer Player. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
Jean-Jacques Pierre (born 23 January 1981) is a Haitian football coach and former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He is the former head coach of the Haiti national team.
9. Wilde-Donald Guerrier (1989 - )
With an HPI of 28.66, Wilde-Donald Guerrier is the 9th most famous Haitian Soccer Player. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Wilde-Donald Guerrier (born 31 March 1989) is a Haitian professional footballer who plays as a left winger or left-back. He has played abroad in Poland, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Cyprus and Lithuania.
10. Réginal Goreux (1987 - )
With an HPI of 27.02, Réginal Goreux is the 10th most famous Haitian Soccer Player. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.
Réginal Goreux (born 31 December 1987) is a Haitian professional football coach and a former player. He is the youth team coach for Standard Liège and also caretaker manager for their reserve team SL16FC that plays in the second-tier Challenger Pro League. He played as a defender or midfielder. He also holds Belgian nationality.
Pantheon has 12 people classified as soccer players born between 1924 and 1989. Of these 12, 6 (50.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living soccer players include Pierre Bayonne, Jean-Jacques Pierre, and Wilde-Donald Guerrier. The most famous deceased soccer players include Emmanuel Sanon, Ernst Jean-Joseph, and Joe Gaetjens. As of April 2022, 1 new soccer players have been added to Pantheon including Pierre Bayonne.
Living Soccer Players
Go to all Rankings
Pierre Bayonne
1949 - Present
HPI: 38.55
Jean-Jacques Pierre
1981 - Present
HPI: 30.74
Wilde-Donald Guerrier
1989 - Present
HPI: 28.66
Réginal Goreux
1987 - Present
HPI: 27.02
Jean Sony Alcénat
1986 - Present
HPI: 23.02
Jean Alexandre
1986 - Present
HPI: 21.05
Deceased Soccer Players
Go to all RankingsEmmanuel Sanon
1951 - 2008
HPI: 50.51
Ernst Jean-Joseph
1948 - 2020
HPI: 46.02
Joe Gaetjens
1924 - 1964
HPI: 44.46
Claude Barthélemy
1945 - 2020
HPI: 44.18
Guy François
1947 - 2019
HPI: 41.89
Arsène Auguste
1951 - 1993
HPI: 40.80
Newly Added Soccer Players (2022)
Go to all RankingsWhich Soccer Players were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 5 most globally memorable Soccer Players since 1700.
