Three years separated Kenji Gorre leaving the Manchester United academy in 2013 and Tahith Chong joining, but fate will bring them together on the biggest stage of all in Houston tonight. When Curacao makes World Cup history this evening as the smallest nation ever to play a World Cup finals fixture, they will do so with two academy graduates of the United academy in their team.
The tiny Caribbean island has a population of just over 150,000, which, to put it into context, is around 75,000 people fewer than live in Trafford. It has a land area of just 171 square miles, which makes it smaller than the Isle of Man. Curacao only became a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 2010, following the dissolution of the Dutch Antilles, and its progress in football has relied on a core group of players born in the Netherlands with ancestral links to the island. In fact, Chong is the only player born in Curacao to make the 26-man squad.
It is Gorre, 31, who was the first to arrive at United and the first to play for Curacao, nicknamed the Blue Wave. His dad, Dean, made more than 120 appearances in the Football League and remains heavily involved in Curacaon football as technical director, and he took the reins for the crucial final qualifier against Jamaica when Dick Advocaat had to step back due to a family health issue. Kenji, who now plays club football for Maccabi Haifa in Israel, played youth football for the Netherlands before committing to Curacao at 24. He has now won 37 caps and is one of the most experienced members of Advocaat's squad, with the 78-year-old back in charge for the World Cup.
The World Cup is a fairytale for players like Gorre and he is determined to enjoy every minute of it, with group stage fixtures against Ecuador and Ivory Coast to follow the opener against Germany. "I feel like I'm in a movie right now and I'm grateful I get to experience this. I'm going to enjoy this to the maximum I can. I'm not going to let it pass me by," he said. Dad Dean added: "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 is a relative latecomer to the squad. He accepted a call-up to the 2021 Gold Cup but didn't make the cut, and Curacao eventually withdrew due to a COVID outbreak. In August last year, he officially switched allegiance to the nation of his birth, having played for the Netherlands Under-21s during his time at United. Chong made 16 first-team appearances during his time at Old Trafford before being sold to Birmingham City in 2022/23. He was back in the Premier League with Luton Town in 2023/24 and now plays for Sheffield United, but the 26-year-old can't wait to experience the World Cup.
"It will be a dream come true, not just for me but for the whole group, considering we're the smallest nation ever, and all the boys having had different paths to get to where we are," he said. "It's been a long process. I've recently joined up, but you've got our captain Leandro Bacuna, and Eloy Room, our keeper, they've been coming here for 10+ years, so you can imagine what they're feeling. I don't think the island has slept yet [since we qualified]. With the World Cup, the people enjoy it and the atmosphere is crazy down there."
History will be made in Houston by the Blue Wave, and two former Reds will be at the heart of it.
