GIBRALTAR — Germain Haewegene has a mischievous, excitable grin. The New Caledonia forward has just scored the second goal in his country’s 2-0 friendly win against Gibraltar, though he knows he has a long night ahead of him. A bus will collect him and his domestic teammates at 2.30 a.m. to begin a 30-hour, 12,000-mile journey home — just 72 hours after making it in the opposite direction to play their Oct. 8 friendly.
Haewegene is standing outside the visitors’ locker room in Gibraltar’s Europa Point Stadium, holding an apple in his hand — no protein shakes or rehydration gels for this group of players — but he wants to talk about his goal, the pride of playing for the South Pacific nation and why even a grueling trip back to the French-controlled archipelago is absolutely nothing to complain about.
“It is a joy to play football and a big joy to score a goal, which I dedicate to my son and my wife,” Haewegene told ESPN. “I feel pride for my country and also for my teammates, who did a big job to win this game.
“Yes, we don’t have a lot of time before we fly home, but we will prepare our suitcases and go to the airport early. It’s no problem. It’s the first time New Caledonia has played in Europe and we won, so we are really happy. We don’t worry about the journey.”
New Caledonia’s biggest journey has only just started and the final destination, as incredulous as it seems, could be the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Nicknamed “Les Cagous” after the indigenous flightless bird that inhabits the dozens of islands that form the country, New Caledonia secured their place in next March’s FIFA Inter-Confederation Play-Offs by reaching the final of the Oceania qualification campaign, where they lost 3-0 to New Zealand earlier this year. However, their semifinal win against Tahiti had already sealed the prize of a ticket to the Play-Offs.
“It is always special to beat Tahiti,” midfielder Jekob Jeno said. “They are our big rivals.”
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Tahiti and New Caledonia are separated by 2,900 miles of ocean, making it perhaps the longest-distance “local” rivalry in sport. But while New Zealand booked Oceania’s solitary direct World Cup spot, New Caledonia will travel to Mexico for the Inter-Confederation Play-Offs in Guadalajara and Monterrey knowing they’re just two victories from the World Cup.
They are a team consisting of part-timers playing in New Caledonia’s 10-team Super Ligue and several who play no higher than the fifth-tier of French football. Only Jeno, who joined Romania’s Unirea Slobozia this summer, represents a top-level team beyond Oceania. Bolivia have also qualified for the Play-Offs and will be joined by two Concacaf nations and one each from Asia and Africa; New Caledonia, ranked 150 by FIFA, know they have a mountain to climb to become the smallest nation ever, eclipsing Iceland, to qualify for the World Cup by clinching one of the two final qualification spots.
“The step is big,” coach Johann Sidaner told ESPN. “Maybe we have a 1% chance of qualifying for the World Cup. But we will play 100% to do it.”
Their dream may be years in the making, but New Caledonia is a relative newcomer to international football, only becoming a member of FIFA in 2004 after being given permission by the French Football Federation four years earlier to apply for membership. As one of France’s Overseas Territories, its citizens have French nationality and are eligible to vote in French presidential elections. Despite being over 10,000 miles apart, the close ties to France explain why almost half of Sidaner’s squad play in the country and why the 48-year-old left a position at his hometown club Nantes to become New Caledonia coach in 2022.
“It was an easy decision for me,” Sidaner said. “The culture of the people is welcoming, friendly and they love football. It is easy to manage this football team.”
AS Magenta, the reigning champions of the New Caledonia Super Ligue, will play in this season’s Coupe de France and have already been assigned a home draw in the seventh round in November — the same stage that teams from Ligue 2 enter the competition — so the fans of Saint-Etienne, Nancy or Montpellier could face an epic roadtrip.
However, the French connection can be problematic. When Gibraltar confirmed the friendly against New Caledonia last month, the announcement was done with flags from Gibraltar and New Caledonia alongside each other on the Gibraltar FA website, causing little short of a diplomatic incident.
“We were asked by UEFA within 20 minutes of the story going up to change the flag [and add France] because of a complaint by New Caledonia,” a Gibraltar source told ESPN. “The New Caledonia flag can only be flown alongside the French tricolour, which led to a hasty update!”
The flag sensitivity also led to Gibraltar having to buy a new flagpole for the game due to both French and New Caledonian flags needing to be flown, with strict instructions that the French flag took prominence over the island nation’s. It was only in 2008 that France granted the football team permission to have its own anthem rather than La Marseillaise, which remains New Caledonia’s official national anthem, so it is against this backdrop of French control that New Caledonia’s footballers are literally putting their country on the map.
“Maybe we can show ourselves as New Caledonia through our football,” midfielder Jeno said. “Our football is not professional, but it’s football and each year, we are developing.
“We know how important the team is to people in New Caledonia. We are their passion and our progress is good for everybody. I am fortunate: I have a career in Europe and a good contract in Romania, but the guys back home, they work in their jobs, they go to work in the morning and they train at night.
“They have had to take time away from their families, their jobs — normal jobs, like working in a supermarket — to come to Gibraltar, but we all do it for New Caledonia.”
Haewegene, the charismatic goalscorer, laughs when asked whether he could be a full-time professional in New Caledonia with AS Magenta, before revealing his incredible “real” job.
“Professional? Haha, no!” Haewegene said. “I play for the biggest team in New Caledonia, but we are not professional. My job is a paralympic coach — I am a guide for blind or visually impaired sprinters. I went to the Paralympics last year to help the French athletes. I can run 100 metres in 11.3 seconds: I’m fast. Very fast!”
So how does a national team from the South Pacific, a country 1200 miles east of Sydney, Australia, end up playing one of Europe’s smallest nations in a friendly game anyway? It’s a game that pitches the 200th best team in the world (Gibraltar) against one ranked just 50 places higher.
Gibraltar’s stadium is half-football ground and half-cricket pitch, tightly framed by the imposing Rock of Gibraltar, a substantial red-and-white lighthouse and the Straits of Gibraltar, the nine-mile wide stretch of water that separates Europe from Africa. But having not played a game since the defeat against New Zealand in Auckland in March, New Caledonia simply needed to play.
“My job is to arrange games for national teams and the New Caledonia coach asked me to find an opponent in Europe in October,” Gaël Mahé, a FIFA match agent told ESPN. “But it’s not easy. There aren’t many possibilities, especially because there are World Cup qualifiers right now and the big national teams can find opponents much easier.
“For the New Caledonia players, half of whom play in their own country, they are travelling halfway around the world for 30 hours, but Gibraltar were happy to play the game, so it was a good solution.”
It’s 4 a.m. in Noumea, the capital of New Caledonia, when Sidaner’s team kick off against Gibraltar at 7 p.m. local time. Having only arrived on Sunday evening, the jet-lag is likely to be at its most punishing for the home-based players. A team room with table tennis and video games has been set-up at the squad’s hotel; some players spend their time shopping, while coach Sidaner relaxes on the terrace outside the hotel with a beer.
There is a relaxed atmosphere around the team, but once the game starts, there is also a tenacity and energy that takes Gibraltar by surprise. New Caledonia are quick and lively and they deserve their victory with second-half goals from Jean-Jacques Katrawa and Haewegene.
“It was an important victory for us because we have beaten a European team for the first time,” coach Sidaner said. “We haven’t played together for a long time, so this will be a very big step for our plans for the Play-Offs.
“We are raising the level of demand with these World Cup 2026 qualifying play-offs and we are only 150 days away from a historic date for New Caledonian football. But for this kind of result, this kind of performance, this is why I chose to coach New Caledonia. For these special moments.”
A training camp in France is planned for January, with hopes of at least one competitive game before the trip to Mexico in March, but after beating Gibraltar, the players just want to celebrate the moment. Sidaner’s squad sit on the steps outside the stadium post-game; some are on their phones, a couple of them sneak a vape and others pose for selfies and photographs. Then they get on the bus, pack their bags and prepare for that arduous journey home.
The itinerary takes them from Malaga, Spain to Paris, France, a connecting flight to Singapore and then finally to Noumea — all in coach class — but there is only joy among the players as they danced on the bus.
“Every young boy wants to play in a World Cup, it is a dream,” Haewegene said. “That is our dream, and we know we have a chance.”
