“Death of the Soccer God” Honors Haiti’s Diaspora and the Promise to Give Back

Eve Irvine welcomes journalist and author Dimitry Elias Léger, whose book, “Death of the Soccer God,” revisits an extraordinary yet largely forgotten moment in sporting history: Haitian-born Joe Gaetjens scoring the goal that secured the United States’ famous victory over England at the 1950 World Cup. Rather than simply reconstructing Gaetjens’s biography, Léger uses the footballer’s journey as a starting point to explore diaspora, fame, mortality and moral responsibility. Success offers no immunity from history or death: “You could be super famous and end up on death row,” Léger observes, while others may die wealthy in their own beds. “Either way, you’re going to die.”

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