‘Death of the Soccer God’ explores belonging, at home and abroad

BROOKLYN — Before reading “Death of the Soccer God” by Dimitry Elias Léger, I didn’t know the story of Joseph Édouard Gaetjens. Sure, I might have heard in passing about the Haitian soccer great who represented the United States in the 1950 FIFA World Cup, scoring its one goal against England in a historic upset. But it didn’t stick.

In the pages of Haitian lore, however, the story struck more like a trivia tidbit compared to the fanfare surrounding Haiti’s 1974 team and Emmanuel Sanon.

“Death of the Soccer God” rectifies that notion. In his fictional version of Gaetjens’ journey, Léger presents Gaetjens as Gilbert Chevalier. A hapless bourgeois kid when we first meet him, Chevalier navigates family secrets, the weight of duty, first love and geopolitical firestorm into adulthood – with his massive football talent as a constant companion. Léger’s chops allow him to craft a very jazzy journey, cued up by his obvious love for the genre and carried throughout with unanticipated, delightful movements. 

“Death of the Soccer God” is far from a macabre story, as the title and Gaetjens’ disappearance suggest. Like jazz, it is deep, but feels like a lindy hop. It covers a lot of heavy socio-political ground, but balances it with dazzling match play-by-plays, extended dialogues and personalities in transformation.

Released in May, reading “Death” just before the 2026 FIFA World Cup, then experiencing the tournament, has felt like looking through a crystal ball into the past. One whose 1950s machinations reflected the present-day intrigues we saw play out in real time.

Who gets to play?

A central theme is the role of diaspora players in international soccer. Haiti’s roster was composed largely of players born or raised abroad, the children of Haitian immigrants returning to represent their ancestral homeland. Over the past month, we witnessed just how critically powerhouse white-led nations such as France, England and Spain rely on people whose Black immigrant family histories stretched across Africa and the Caribbean.

Chevalier’s story was the same one raised across social media about fair play — on the field, during and after the matches. The debacle with the FIFA refs is just one of many examples to analyze the very concept of fair play and equity on the global stage. With Haiti specifically, the internet hardly has bandwidth to litigate the Scotland match, Coach Migné’s frekansité and the Grenadiers jersey controversy. 

By far, the most galling was Trump tipping the scales to get a red card reversal for the U.S. I couldn’t help but to think about the promises made to Léger’s hero as he trotted around the globe. His predicament brought to mind countless other athletes, teams and countries whose potential is suppressed by the ego trips of more powerful people and national interests, with similarities that haven’t changed 75 years later.

A re-lived story with lots of swings

Beyond soccer, Léger immerses readers in Haitian society, college life, pre-gentrified Harlem and being a stranger abroad. His deftness in placing characters in Haiti and around the globe may be familiar to dyaspora adept at migrating and assimilating across spaces.

Through Chevalier’s world — his parents, his wife’s hidden past and eyebrow-raising tastes, his great love, his brother, his mother and the people surrounding them — we experience the fluidity of class in Haiti and how status shifts with wealth, circumstance and personal values.

Unexpectedly, “Death of the Soccer God” is also an homage to jazz.  A nod to the parts of American history that went into its creation and the greats that made the rest of the world fall in love with it. 

Léger also transports readers to Harlem, placing them in a sliver of time just before many jazz greats reach legendary status — much like our protagonist. Chevalier roams around the city, conversing with artists and intellectuals whose brilliance coexists with hardship. He gives readers the sense that Lèger himself is sitting in conversation with his heroes to bring us much-needed history, context and encouragement in pursuing better for ourselves.

Léger plays the same trick with many big names whose influence shaped the decades after 1950, including the negritude movement and post-war European migration to the Caribbean. 

No novel set in mid-20th century Haiti would be complete without François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, and Léger does something unexpected here too. Rather than simply portraying Duvalier as the larger-than-life dictator who has haunted generations, he strips away some of the mythology from the “Little Doctor” in hilarious, headshaking scenes.

More than a game

Only a couple of aspects kept this book from being flawless. In melding past and present, certain idioms sounded more like they came from Léger’s own coming-of-age years rather than from decades prior. Jumping at times from first-person to third-person narration in some passages also pulled me out of the story occasionally.

Still, these did not overshadow what the novel accomplishes. It still clearly relays the many ways economic exploitation, social stratification, or political repression can stifle the potential of individuals and entire nations. “Death” echoes the still persistent systems that deny opportunity to some and reduce human lives to bargaining chips, turning future legends into tragic figures.

Notably, “Death of the Soccer God” revives the story of Gaetjens for a new generation. I, for one, have learned to appreciate his story in a way I’ll retain. 

For fans of fair play, the novel also reminds us that no game, no matter how beautiful, is more important than a life lived. “Death” portrays the humanity of each one of us living through extraordinary times, with godlike greatness.

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