How did the Panama Football Team, inundated with the phantom hand of drug cartels & no legacy, beat the USA to win a World Cup 2018 berth? FP investigates.
It was just over 500 years ago that Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa landed on the shores of Panama and declared it as being a nation of mass potential. ‘’The Isthmus of Panama’’ was one of the great discoveries made in global exploration – it was land that linked North America with South America, providing a vital connection that would be sought after for centuries to come. This connection has become part of the DNA of the land – transfusing itself into the Panamanian footballing culture, a North American nation that plays with the flair and intensity of their South American counterparts. Panama. A nation burdened by history with the label of “potential” that has, in footballing terms, begun to fulfill that label with qualification for the 2018 World Cup.
Football has a remarkable way of entangling itself within a historical narrative and Panama’s last two World Cup qualifying campaigns have been no different. They have been defeated in the cruelest of ways and then consequently been miraculous victors, both times in scenarios involving a nation they’ve had a somewhat complex relationship with…the USA.
Panama’s history is similar to many Central American nations – its central theme is a violent struggle for freedom. With 4 million inhabitants, the country was owned by Spain before becoming part of Colombia. An eventual independence revolution came in 1903, aided by a United States predominantly interested in building a massive canal in the country to forge the link between the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean. It would go on to be originally named the Panama Canal. Panama would eventually reclaim ownership of the Canal in 1999. The building of the Canal also saw vast numbers of Caribbean workers immigrating to Panama for work; they would settle on the island and create the significant Afro-Panamanian population of the country.