The Grenadiers enter a new Era with David Badía and Wilson Isidor at the wheel

Haiti will begin a new chapter in its national team history on Sept. 24, when the Grenadiers open the 2026-27 Concacaf Nations League against Trinidad and Tobago at Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica. It will be the first competitive outing for Les Grenadiers since their historic run at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and the first under new head coach David Badía, without two of the players who helped get them there.

Badía, a 51-year-old Spaniard with a coaching background in Barcelona’s youth academy, was named Haiti’s head coach in August, replacing Frenchman Sébastien Migné. Badía now inherits a team in transition, with just weeks to prepare his first squad before the competitive window opens.

That transition includes the departures of two long-time captains. Defender Ricardo Adé, who wore the armband since 2021 and earned 62 caps, announced his international retirement earlier this month. His decision followed goalkeeper Johny Placide, who captained the Grenadiers for over a decade and made 85 appearances before stepping away roughly a month earlier.

Both players were central figures in Haiti’s return to the World Cup stage after a 52-year absence, and their exit marks the end of an era of leadership for the program.

With that leadership void, attention turns to Wilson Isidor. The Sunderland striker who made made an great impact on the team. Isidor scored his first goal with The Grenadiers in a friendly against Iceland before finding the net again at the World Cup in a group-stage loss to Morocco. Isidor is widely expected to lead the Grenadiers’ attack under Badía as the team looks to replace its scoring threat and establish a new on-field identity heading into the Nations League.

Haiti was drawn into League A, Group A alongside Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, Curaçao, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. After facing Trinidad and Tobago on Sept. 24, the Grenadiers return to Sabina Park three days later to meet Costa Rica, before back-to-back road trips: an Oct. 1 match against the Dominican Republic in Santo Domingo and an Oct. 4 rematch with Costa Rica in San José. The competition will also serve as part of the qualification pathway toward the 2027 Concacaf Gold Cup.

The Nations League opener is as much a test of what comes next as it is a competition in its own right. A new coach, a new focal point in attack mean Haiti’s results over the next two weeks will offer the first real signs of how the Grenadiers plan to build on 2026.