Philippe Vorbe (born September 14, 1947) is a former Haitian footballer who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for the

Haiti national football team The Haiti national football team (french: Équipe d'Haïti de football, Haitian Creole: ''Ekip foutbòl Ayiti'') represents Haiti in international football. Haiti is administered by the Fédération Haïtienne de Football (FHF), the governing ...

in the 1974 FIFA World Cup in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. A legendary player in Haiti, he provided

Emmanuel Sanon Emmanuel "Manno" Sanon (25 June 1951 – 21 February 2008) was a Haitian professional footballer who played as a striker. He starred in the Haiti national team winning the 1973 CONCACAF Championship. Haiti qualified for the finals of the 1974 ...

the pass that resulted in the famous goal that put an end to

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

Dino Zoff Dino Zoff (; born 28 February 1942) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is the oldest ever winner of the World Cup, which he earned as captain of the Italian national team in the 1982 tournament, at th ...

's no-goal streak. Vorbe played for the

New York Generals The New York Generals were an American professional soccer team based in New York City that competed in the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) in 1967 and the North American Soccer League (NASL) in 1968. Founded as charter members ...

and Violette Athletic Club. He ascended from player to leader and is now the coach of Violette.

International career

Vorbe was described in a February 1974 ''Observer'' article by

Hugh McIlvanney Hugh McIlvanney (2 February 1934 – 24 January 2019) was a Scottish sports journalist who had long stints with the British Sunday newspapers ''The Observer'' (30 years until 1993) and then 23 years with ''The Sunday Times'' (1993–2016). Aft ...

as a "tall, handsome white man of French extraction" and a "graceful midfield player" with "impressive skills".McIlvanney, Hugh (February 10, 1974). "Tassy, voodoo 'Doc' of Haiti". ''The Observer''. p. 22 Having qualified for the 1974 World Cup by first knocking out

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

in a play-off, then topping the final group in the capital Port-au-Prince, Haiti was drawn into a very difficult group featuring two-time champions

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, future champions

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, who managed third place in the tournament. The most famous goal of Haiti's World Cup run occurred against Italy. The ''Azzurri'' had not let in a goal in 12 games prior to the World Cup, thanks to goalkeeper

. However, in the opening of the second half, Emmanuel Sanon shocked the Italians with the opening goal, thanks to a spot-on pass from teammate Philippe Vorbe. However this lead did not hold and Italy went on to win 3–1.

References

External links

Philippe Vorbe NASL stats
1947 births Living people Sportspeople from Port-au-Prince Haitian footballers Haiti international footballers Haitian people of French descent 1974 FIFA World Cup players CONCACAF Championship-winning players Expatriate soccer players in the United States Haitian expatriate footballers Haitian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Ligue Haïtienne players Violette AC players National Professional Soccer League (1967) players New York Generals (NPSL) players New York Generals players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Association football midfielders {{Haiti-footy-bio-stub