Marking a landmark milestone for Haitian youth football, the country’s U-15 men’s national squad — nicknamed the Young Grenadiers — wrapped up their campaign at the first-ever 2026 FIFA U-15 World Cup and Festival on October 30, 2026, with a dominant 3-0 shutout victory over Iraq’s “Lions of Mesopotamia” to claim top-tier placement in the tournament’s Division B. The historic debut iteration of the global youth competition gathered 191 FIFA member federations and more than 3,000 emerging young footballers, adopting a unique 8-on-8 match format with two 20-minute halves tailored to prioritize skill development and equal playing opportunities for youth athletes. The tournament’s structure split competing teams into two main competitive tiers: Division A, which contested the top 32 global rankings for the official U-15 world title, ultimately claimed by Spain, with the Czech Republic taking silver and Greece earning third place. After a narrow 4-3 loss to Croatia in the round of 16, Haiti was eliminated from the top-tier title race and moved to Division B, the secondary competitive bracket for 32 teams that finished second in their initial group stages, competing for rankings 65 through 96 overall. Over the course of 10 total tournament matches, the Young Grenadiers delivered a series of standout performances that included the nation’s first ever FIFA World Cup victory across any youth age group, a 6-0 rout of East Timor. Additional key wins included a 4-2 defeat of Israel, a last-gasp 2-1 win over Andorra, a 4-0 thrashing of Azerbaijan led by a hat-trick from rising star John Laroque, a 1-0 narrow triumph over Jamaica, and the closing 3-0 Division B final victory over Iraq where Laroque notched a brace in the 25th and 27th minutes before teammate Aridou Benoît sealed the result in the 33rd minute. The squad’s only losses came in the tournament opener against Australia (3-1), their round of 16 clash with Croatia (4-3), a 1-0 tight defeat to Qatar, and a 2-1 loss to Bolivia. Across their full run, Haiti’s young athletes recorded an impressive 6 wins against 4 losses, netting 25 total goals while conceding only 13, to land 28th in the Division B standings and 61st overall out of 189 competing national teams, a result widely celebrated as a resounding success for Haitian youth football development.