Overview:
Haitian soccer prodigy Lourdjina Étienne signed with F.C. Fleury on July 14. Étienne is broadly seen as essentially the most promising younger Haitian expertise since Melchie Dumornay’s teenage rise to stardom. Her transfer provides to Haiti’s rising legacy in France’s D1 Arkema league.
CAP-HAÏTIEN— Haitian teen sensation Lourdjina Étienne has formally signed with French membership group F.C. Fleury on July 15, turning into the most recent prodigy from the nation to interrupt into Europe’s elite girls’s soccer leagues.
“I wish to be among the many greatest,” Étienne told fans in a recent interview.
“I’d additionally wish to carry the membership to the next stage. I’m blissful to signal with Fleury.”
For a lot of Haitian athletes, knowledgeable contract overseas is greater than a dream — it’s a lifeline. With native leagues suspended on account of escalating gang violence and political instability, alternatives to develop inside Haiti have vanished. Étienne’s transfer symbolizes greater than private success; it displays the hopes of a era of Haitian gamers who view soccer as one of many few viable paths out of disaster.
Étienne’s switch provides to a rising legacy of Haitian girls excelling in France’s D1 Arkema league, becoming a member of elite gamers like Melchie Dumornay and Batcheba Louis. Her path continues a pattern almost a decade within the making, the place France has change into a vital vacation spot for Haiti’s high feminine soccer gamers.
The agile striker from Cap-Haïtien turned 18 on July 14, turning into eligible for her first skilled contract. Her breakout got here in February 2024 on the CONCACAF U‑17 Championship, the place she netted eight targets in 4 matches and earned the event’s high participant award.
Her efficiency attracted tryouts with elite European golf equipment, together with giants like FC Barcelona, Olympique Lyonnais and Paris Saint-Germain. Though these golf equipment handed, Étienne’s trajectory carefully mirrors that of Dumornay, who joined Lyon in 2023 and was named the group’s Participant of the Yr.
Dumornay first tried out with Lyon however was signed by a smaller group, Stade de Reims, the place she proved her price.
Although gifted, Etienne faces formidable alternatives and steep challenges in breaking into Spanish large FC Barcelona’s elite system.
Étienne’s signing additionally comes as native alternatives dwindle. Haiti’s girls’s league has been dormant since early 2022, and gamers have been left to coach independently or by no means. Étienne stayed sharp beneath the steerage of longtime coach Johnny Saintilien.
Étienne’s entourage and Haitian soccer followers are extraordinarily delighted as a result of the nation’s starlet is taking her expertise to France, an necessary step in her profession.
“I’m blissful for her and proud,” Johnny Saintilien, Etienne’s soccer coach when she was in Cap-Haïtien.
This rising presence of Haitian girls’s gamers in France started when Nérilia Mondesir signed her first skilled contract with Montpellier in 2017.
Mondesir paved the best way as considered one of Haiti’s first exports to the French girls’s soccer league. It was a pivotal second for Haitian girls’s soccer. Dumornay adopted in 2021 with Stade de Reims earlier than transferring to Lyon. Batcheba Louis and Kethna Louis are amongst different Haitian gamers making waves in D1 Arkema.
In Haiti, Étienne final performed for Affiliation Sportive Tigresses in Port-au-Prince. However the native girls’s league has been dormant amid escalating gang violence. With no official matches since early 2024, Etienne educated commonly with Saintilien to take care of her sharpness.
“Gamers like [Lourdjina] give me extra power to assist different gamers make their goals come true.”
Johnny Saintilien, soccer coach
“She’s one of many gamers I spent essentially the most time working with, and I had that dream for her,” Saintilien mentioned. “The work and sacrifices are lastly paying off.”
In France, she’ll be part of a rising neighborhood of Haitian gamers making an impression in D1 Arkema. A pattern that started with Mondesir’s transfer to Montpellier and has continued to develop steadily since. In the present day, 13 Haitian girls play within the league, highlighting a uncommon level of delight amid the nation’s mounting turmoil.
Étienne’s absence from the Haitian nationwide group has been felt. Haiti’s U‑20 squad didn’t qualify for the 2024 World Cup with out her, and the senior group has struggled in friendlies.
“Gamers like [Lourdjina] give me extra power to assist different gamers make their goals come true,” Saintilien added.
Étienne will step right into a league the place Haitian expertise is flourishing — a testomony to the nation’s soccer potential.
Under is a listing of the entire present Haitian gamers in D1 Arkema.
