Port-au-Prince — The Fédération Haïtienne de Football has ended its month-long search for a successor to Sébastien Migné, officially unveiling Spanish coach David Badía as the new head coach of Haiti’s men’s national team.
The federation made the announcement Friday on its official account, closing out a coaching search that had stretched over five weeks and, according to Haitian football insiders, drawn more than thirty applications from around the world. “1974 was a stage. 2026 was a passage. The dream is tomorrow,” the FHF wrote in Haitian Creole, framing the appointment as the next step in a journey that began with Haiti’s historic return to the World Cup this past summer — only the country’s second appearance in the tournament, 52 years after its 1974 debut. “To get there, we need a solid team, a proud people, and a coach with the ambition to go far. The FHF is proud to present our new Grenadiers coach: David Badía! Let’s get acquainted with the new captain of the ship.”
Who Is David Badía?
Badía Cequier, 50, is a Spanish coach and former center-back born in Gavà, near Barcelona. His playing career was modest, spent largely in Spain’s lower divisions and with Austria’s Sturm Graz before he transitioned into coaching. His managerial rise came primarily through the youth ranks and coaching staffs of major clubs: he spent four years coaching in FC Barcelona’s famed youth academy (2012–2016) before moving into senior coaching, first as an assistant — and briefly caretaker manager — at Turkey’s Antalyaspor, then as an assistant at Fenerbahçe and later at Spain’s UD Almería.
His first head-coaching opportunities came in Cyprus, where he took charge of Ethnikos Achna, AEK Larnaca, and Akritas Chlorakas in short spells between 2021 and 2022, before landing a more prominent post in March 2023 as head coach of Polish top-flight side Lechia Gdańsk. He returned to Ethnikos Achna for a second spell in 2024–2025 before now taking on his first national-team assignment with Haiti.
The Job He’s Inheriting
Badía takes over a program riding unusually high expectations for a country still working to stabilize its domestic football infrastructure amid an ongoing security crisis. Under Sébastien Migné, who took the reins in mid-2024, Haiti pulled off one of CONCACAF’s most improbable recent achievements: qualifying for the 2026 FIFA World Cup without playing a single official “home” match on Haitian soil, after gang violence made the country’s main stadium too dangerous to host international fixtures — forcing the Grenadiers to play their home qualifiers in Curaçao instead. Haiti was eliminated in the group stage at the World Cup itself without picking up a point, but the run was still hailed domestically as a landmark achievement, and Migné departed by mutual agreement with the federation shortly afterward, with both sides describing the split as amicable.
That success has raised the bar considerably for whoever follows him. Haitian football media reported that the FHF’s shortlist at various points included names such as former Athletic Bilbao and Eibar coach Gaizka Garitano, Argentine Sebastián Beccacece, Uruguayan Pablo Correa, Frenchman Alexandre Lafitte, and Tunisian Sabri Lamouchi — underscoring how competitive and closely watched the search had become before the federation settled on Badía.
What Comes Next
Badía inherits a squad built substantially around Haiti’s European and North American diaspora, headlined by longtime captain and goalkeeper Johny Placide, defensive anchor Ricardo Adé, and attacking talents such as Duckens Nazon and Wilson Isidor, whose World Cup strike against Morocco was shortlisted by FIFA for Goal of the Tournament. His first major test will be steering the Grenadiers through their next competitive cycle — almost certainly including Gold Cup and World Cup qualifying assignments — while the FHF continues to grapple with the operational challenge of fielding a national team that still cannot safely play home matches inside Haiti itself.
The federation has not yet released details of Badía’s contract length or his coaching staff. Formal presentation of the new coach to the Haitian public and press is expected in the coming days.
This report is based on the Fédération Haïtienne de Football’s official announcement and publicly available career records for David Badía. Further details on his staff, contract terms, and first squad call-up were not yet available at time of writing.
