Cuban Players Fled Their Team for an Uncertain Future – seven players and an assistant coach defect

On Tuesday afternoon, just before playing the United States in a match that ended in a 1-1 tie, Prieto called his grandfather again. This time the conversation was urgent. Pick me up tonight, at my hotel, he said; I want to defect.

Around 10:45 p.m. Tuesday, Prieto and four teammates went out a side door of the Doubletree Hotel, got into his grandfather’s truck and slipped away toward an American future. The young men were no longer members of the Cuban national soccer team; they were refugees.

By Wednesday night, two more players had left the team hotel. As of Friday, an assistant coach was also unaccounted for. Although the defection of Cuban athletes from international competitions is not uncommon, the sudden departure of seven players and an assistant coach at a qualifying tournament for the Olympics represented a stunning rebuke to the Cuban government.”*

*From: www.nytimes.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

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