Jean Emmanuel Jacquet, the Minister of Culture paid tribute to Maurice Léonce de Jérémie, who celebrated his 100th birthday on September 10, 2021.

A brilliant footballer of the 1940s, he wore the colors of the Haitian Star while simultaneously practicing : sports animation, poetry and dance.

At 21, he continued to practice football while becoming a sports instructor. At the end of his football career, he switched to coaching. He was part of the first coaches promotion formed by French technician Paul Baron. He would later obtain two more coaching degrees in Haiti, one of which was under the guidance of Greek coach Dan Gordianis. With three coaching degrees and a long experience as a physical educator, he embarked on coaching young people in order to prepare for the future by instilling in them a love of the country through sport in general and football in particular.

Around 1964 under the regime of François Duvalier he went into exile in New York where he lived there 31 years before his return to Haiti in 1996 after having founded a football school in Queens with Frantz Saint-Lot.

Maurice Léonce has published a collection of poems entitled Anacaona and is a coach of the "Grand'Anse École de Football" for the 6 to 14 years old that he founded in 2002 with his friend Guy Loubeau, In 2004, the Haitian Football Federation , decided to honor him, by awarding him a coaching diploma for his devotion to training young people.

"You have to be a sacred sportsman like Maurice Léonce to get there, without any major handicap. This outstanding marathoner in the race of life, whose 100 years we are celebrating today. It is this man, full of vigor in his great age with infallible memory, whom we honor for his loyal services to the Haitian Nation," declared Minister Jacquet who "salutes with deference the imposing personality of Maurice Léonce, a living human heritage of national and international dimension. To him be the honor !"

S/ iciHaiti