The day Hensley Meulens became the first Curaçaoan to reach Major League Baseball, something much bigger than sports happened. A new idea was born on the island.
For the first time, it became undeniable that someone from Curaçao could reach the highest level of world sports.
Today that may seem normal, but at the time it was revolutionary. For many young people, professional sports belonged to big countries, big cities and big economies — not to a small island in the Caribbean Sea.
Then came Andruw Jones.
His success did more than win games. It changed the way an entire generation saw itself. Young people no longer saw only a baseball player. They saw a possibility.
“If he can do it, why can’t I?”
The results are now part of Curaçao’s sporting history. The island went on to produce an extraordinary number of world-class athletes. Names like Kenley Jansen, Ozzie Albies, Jonathan Schoop, Jurickson Profar and Andrelton Simmons followed the same path. What started with one pioneer evolved into an entire sporting culture.
This process can be seen across the world. One example creates a spark. That spark inspires greater participation. Greater participation produces more talent. And more talent produces champions.
That is exactly why Curaçao’s qualification for the FIFA World Cup is far more important than many people realize today.
Many people are focused on the national team itself and ask whether Curaçao can truly compete at that level. Whether the island is too small. Whether there are enough resources. Those are legitimate questions. But perhaps we are looking at this the wrong way.
Because the real game is not being played inside FIFA stadiums.
It is being played on school playgrounds across Curaçao.
For the first time, an entire generation is growing up seeing that Curaçao is not merely participating in qualifiers — Curaçao has actually reached the biggest stage in world football.
That changes something inside the minds of children.
A child in Brievengat, Tera Kòrá or Barber no longer only dreams about AFC Ajax, FC Barcelona or Liverpool FC. Now that child also sees a blue jersey with “Curaçao” written across it. They see a possibility that yesterday still felt impossible.
This is exactly how major sporting nations are born.
Look at Iceland. A country with barely more people than a medium-sized city managed to qualify for major international tournaments — not because it had more talent than everyone else, but because it invested for years in youth development, coaching and a shared national dream.
Look at Morocco. Its historic success at the 2022 FIFA World Cup did not happen overnight. For years the country worked to connect diaspora talent with the national project. When the results finally arrived, the entire world felt it.
Curaçao has a similar advantage.
Officially, the island has around 150,000 inhabitants. But there is also a large Curaçaoan community in the Netherlands and elsewhere around the world. That means the talent pool is far larger than population statistics suggest.
What is happening today with the national football team demonstrates what becomes possible when those two worlds come together.
But this is also a challenge.
The mistake would be believing that qualification alone is enough.
The real question is: what will Curaçao do with this moment?
Will it become a beautiful memory that people still talk about at family gatherings ten years from now?
Or will it become the beginning of something much bigger?
That requires investment in youth. Not only in stadiums, but especially in coaches. Not only in matches, but also in education. Not only in players, but in structures capable of lasting decades.
And perhaps most importantly: it requires a different mentality.
Too often, Curaçao focuses on what it lacks — limited money, a small population, limited opportunities.
The history of Curaçao baseball proved exactly the opposite.
Curaçao’s strength was never in numbers.
Its strength lies in belief.
Not long ago, one Curaçaoan child began believing he could reach Major League Baseball.
Then an entire generation believed it.
Today Curaçao is going to the World Cup.
And perhaps that is the greatest victory of all. Not the matches that will soon be played, but the thousands of children who today will look at the national team and think for the first time:
“Why not me?”
That is how the story once began with Hensley Meulens.
That is how it grew through Andruw Jones.
And perhaps today we are witnessing the first page of a new chapter in Curaçao’s history — not as a small island surprising the world, but as an island finally discovering the potential it always possessed.
Orlando Meulens
Columnist