Africa-Press – Uganda. When Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier’s ruthless secret police dragged Ernst Jean-Joseph from Haiti squad’s base, badly beat him and flew him to Port-au-Prince to face his homeland’s dictator, everyone was terrified.
Jean-Joseph’s teammates, terribly worried, were thrashed 7-0 by Poland. Before their last group game, Haiti captain Phillipe Vorbe received a surprise call from Jean-Joseph, ordered by his captors, to prove he was still alive.
Against Argentina, Haiti played better but lost 4-1.
There were rumours that Jean-Joseph had both of his arms broken as punishment for embarrassing Baby Doc. But that did not happen.
At the Munich hotel, Jean-Joseph had befriended a French-speaking West German waitress who helped him make several terrified phone calls asking for her help when the Tonton Macoutes were hunting for him.
The waitress immediately told the story to Kurt Renner, Fifa’s team attaché to the Haitian delegation. Renner reported the incident to his bosses, expressing his concerns to reporters who published the alarming.
Fifa sacked Renne for his indiscretion.
But Fifa was just not interested in the fate of a player who had been forcibly marched onto a plane and flown out of the country under. Simply, Fifa left Jean-Joseph to die alone.
Fortunately, the defender eventually played again for his club Violette AC, in Haiti, Ottawa Tigers in Canada and Chicago Sting in USA. He also played for Haiti again but the nation has never returned to the World Cup.
Jean-Joseph died of a heart attack in 2020 at the age of 72.
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