Four members of the Cuban men’s soccer team left the concentration after their first match in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, which ended in a 0-1 defeat against Guatemala in Miami (United States).
Cuban specialized journalist Francys Romero announced the information on Wednesday, which was later confirmed by other reporters and even by the state sports newspaper Jit.
The four footballers are Roberney Caballero, Carlos Denilson Morales, Neisser Sandó and Jassael Herrera. None showed up for the flight from Miami to Houston (southern United States), where the Cuban team has its second group stage match in a few days.
Some thirty elite athletes from Cuba have abandoned national concentrations taking advantage of trips abroad in 2023. In recent years there have been several hundred, according to official media.
The serious economic difficulties that Cubans have been suffering for more than two years have fueled an unprecedented exodus on the island. Only last year, 313,000 nationals arrived illegally at the southern border of the United States.
To this is added, in the case of athletes, the problems they have to go abroad and sign for foreign clubs, where they can earn much more than in the national competitions of their country during their short working lives.
In the official media these abandonments are usually collected as “serious indiscipline” and even “betrayals”.
The Cuban team opened with a defeat in the Gold Cup this Tuesday against Guatemala and this Saturday faces the revelation of group D, Guadalupe. The meeting of the Caribbean Lions with Canada, the theoretical favorite of the group, is scheduled for next Tuesday.
