Le Manolo Haïtien

As a former football player, I have been supporting the national team since I was a teenager. However, I got more involved in 2013 when I traveled to Miami to watch Haiti play the world champions Spain, where they lost 2-1. Since that game, I have been following the team and traveling with them all over. Sometimes I am the only Haitian in the stadium. 

In 2014, I met team captain Jerome Mechack and he introduced me to the whole team in 2015 in Costa Rica for my birthday. The team took photos with me at the National Stadium in San José. It was an incredible experience. The year after, we had our worst nightmare with the national team when we lost 3-0 in Nicaragua and did not qualify for the Gold Cup. We had won the first leg in Haiti 3-1. 

After seeing me with the national team everywhere, a very well-known reporter from Haiti called Thecieux Jeanty, called me “Le Manolo Haïtien” - The Haitian Manolo. There is a popular fan from Spain called Manolo, who always travels with Spain (since 1982). I established a Facebook group called Le Manolo - Le Grenadier, which has over 4,000 members.