Tahith Chong is the only player born in Curaçao in the 26-man World Cup roster Dick Advocaat named in February for Sheffield United F.C.-related coverage of the tournament’s debuting side. Curaçao reached the World Cup with a squad built almost entirely outside the country, yet Chong remains the lone homegrown player in the group.
Tahith Chong and the roster split
The Curaçao squad includes one player born in the country and 25 born elsewhere, with the rest of the roster coming from the Netherlands. That split is unusual even for a World Cup debutant, because it leaves the side representing Curaçao with a squad shaped mostly by a football pathway that started abroad.
Chong, a Curaçao attacking midfielder, left Curaçao aged eight to further his football education. He joined Feyenoord’s youth academy when he was 10, moved to Manchester United in 2016, and made his Premier League debut in March 2019 against Southampton. His first league goal came for Luton against Liverpool.
Advocaat’s February selection
In February, Dick Advocaat named a 26-man roster for Curaçao’s World Cup debut. Most of the squad was born in the Netherlands, including Eloy Room and Leandro Bacuna, who fit the same pattern as the bulk of the group. FIFA’s World Cup field has 48 teams, and only eight squads are made up entirely of players born in their own country.
Chong had already taken the senior step for Curaçao in June 2021, after representing the Netherlands at every youth category from Under-15 to Under-21. He later made his debut under Advocaat in a CONCACAF World Cup qualifier against Trinidad in September 2025, then started the next game against Bermuda and scored two goals while also playing in Tyrese Noslin for the winner.
Germany and the family wait
A meniscus tear kept him out of the remaining qualifiers, but he returned to play in all of the team’s pre-World Cup friendlies this year. Later today, he could make his World Cup debut against Germany, with his family back home in the Caribbean set to watch, including his 94-year-old grandmother.
Chong’s own words explain why he chose this path: “The idea was always there for years because that is home home. Curaçao needed to fix some things in the organisation and I feel like they have made those steps over the years which is brilliant to see. I felt it was the right time”
