Four Cuba players appear to defect while on Gold Cup duty in US

Four members of Cuba’s men’s national soccer team have seemingly defected while on CONCACAF Gold Cup duty in the United States.

Cuban players go AWOL ahead of Houston flight

Cuban journalist Francys Romero first broke the news on Wednesday, before it was confirmed by other media outlets - including the Cuban state sports daily, Jit.

The four players are Roberney Caballero, Carlos Denilson Morales, Neisser Sandó and Jassael Herrera.

After Cuba’s 1-0 group-stage defeat to Guatemala in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday, the quartet failed to turn up for the team’s flight from Miami to Houston, where Pablo Elier Sánchez’s side are due to play their second first-round game on Saturday.

Latest in large number of Cuban sportspeople to defect

So far in 2023, around 30 elite Cuban athletes have taken advantage of their presence at overseas competitions to defect. In recent years, that number is estimated to be in the hundreds.

Cuban sportspeople are motivated to defect by the obstacles that the nation’s communist regime places in their path when they try to leave to join sports teams abroad.

Top-level athletes from Cuba have the potential to earn far greater amounts of money outside their home country, which has suffered serious economic difficulties over the past few years.

Among the Cuban population as a whole, such economic issues have led to an unprecedented exodus from the Caribbean island. In 2022, around 313,000 Cubans sought to cross the US border illegally.

Depleted Cuban squad continues Gold Cup campaign

After losing their opening Gold Cup match, Cuba face Guadeloupe on matchday two of Group D this weekend, before meeting Canada in their final first-round game on Tuesday.