Joe gaetjens biography
- Gaetjens won his home national championship in 19with top-level Etoile Haïtienne.
- Gaetjens was born in Port-au-Prince in 1924.
- Joseph Edouard Gaetjens was a soccer player who played as a center forward.
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The scorer of the most famous goal in American soccer history, the one that beat England in the 1950 World Cup in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Gaetjens, a native of Haiti, was one of three players on that United States team who were not American citizens, but had officially declared their intention of becoming citizens. Although the use of those three players by the United States was approved by FIFA, Gaetjens never did become an American citizen. He disappeared in Haiti in 1964, and was believed to have been a victim of the Tontons Macoutes, the Duvalier regime’s brutal security police.
Gaetjens came to the United States in the 1940s as a student, and was discovered by Brookhattan of the American Soccer League while playing for an amateur team. He was not a member of the United States team during its World Cup qualifying tournament in 1949. However, he was added to the roster after he led the ASL in scoring in the 1949-50 season, and ended up playing all three games in the World Cup, the only three games he ever played for the United States.
Gaetjens’ goal in the 37th minute of th
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Joe Gaetjens facts for kids
| Full name | Joseph Edouard Gaetjens | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | (1924-03-19)March 19, 1924 | ||
| Place of birth | Port-au-Prince, Haiti | ||
| Date of death | July 10, 1964(1964-07-10) (aged 40) | ||
| Place of death | Port-au-Prince, Haiti | ||
| Height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) | ||
| Playing position | Center forward | ||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1938–1947 | Etoile Haïtienne | ||
| 1947–1950 | Brookhattan | 64 | (42) |
| 1951–1952 | Racing Club de Paris | 4 | (2) |
| 1952–1953 | Olympique Alès | 15 | (2) |
| 1953–1957 | Etoile Haïtienne | ||
| 1944–1953 | Haiti | 3 | (0) |
| 1950 | United States | 3 | (1) |
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Joseph Edouard Gaetjens ( GAY-jenz; March 19, 1924 – July 10, 1964 [presumed]) was a Haitiansoccer player who played for the United States national team in the 1950 FIFA World Cup, scoring the winning goal in the 1–0 upset of England. He also played one match for Haiti in a World Cup qualifier against Mexico.
Gaetjens won his home national championship in 1942 and 1944 with top-level Etoi
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Joe Gaetjens
American soccer player
Joseph Edouard Gaetjens (GAY-jenz;[1]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.
Early life
Joe Gaetjens was born in Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince on March 19, 1924, to
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