Two former Manchester United academy players set to make World Cup history with Curacao against Germany

Kenji Gorre and Tahith Chong, two former Manchester United academy graduates, will make World Cup history on Wednesday night in Houston when Curacao face Germany — becoming the smallest nation by population ever to compete in a World Cup finals fixture.

Curacao has a population of just over 150,000, roughly 75,000 fewer people than live in the London Borough of Trafford, and a land area of just 171 square miles — smaller than the Isle of Man. Yet the Caribbean island, known as the Blue Wave, has qualified for the 2026 World Cup with a squad built largely around Dutch-born players with ancestral ties to the island.

Three years separated Gorre leaving United’s academy in 2013 and Chong joining, but fate has reunited them on football’s biggest stage. Gorre, 31, who now plays club football for Maccabi Haifa in Israel, was the first of the two to arrive at Old Trafford and the first to commit to Curacao internationally. He had previously represented the Netherlands at youth level before switching allegiance at 24, and has since earned 37 caps — making him one of the most experienced players in Dick Advocaat’s squad. The 78-year-old Advocaat is back in charge for the tournament after stepping aside during a crucial final qualifier against Jamaica for family health reasons, with Gorre’s father Dean — a former Football League player with more than 120 appearances to his name — temporarily taking the reins.

“I feel like I’m in a movie right now and I’m grateful I get to experience this,” Gorre said. “I’m going to enjoy this to the maximum I can. I’m not going to let it pass me by.”

His father reflected on the journey that brought Curacao to this point: “Kenji’s one of the pioneers… but there have been players before him as well. When you have real success, that’s where it starts counting. When the success all of a sudden came with qualifying for the 2017 Gold Cup, people start believing ‘Hey, this is a good way to represent Curacao as well’.”

Chong’s path to the squad was less straightforward. He accepted a call-up to the 2021 Gold Cup but did not make the cut, and Curacao subsequently withdrew from the tournament due to a COVID outbreak. In August 2024, he officially switched his international allegiance to the country of his birth, having previously represented the Netherlands Under-21s during his time at United. Chong made 16 first-team appearances at Old Trafford before being sold to Birmingham City, and is notably the only player in Curacao’s 26-man squad who was actually born on the island.

Curacao only became a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 2010, following the dissolution of the Dutch Antilles. Their World Cup debut against Germany in Houston is followed by group stage fixtures against Ecuador and Ivory Coast.