🇬🇵 For Luther Archimède, Guadeloupe is a big national team
The USL-based forward is setting his sights on a strong 2024, anticipating League A showdowns in the Nations League after securing promotion with Les Gwada Boys.
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At age 24, Luther Archimède still doesn’t know where else his career will take him, what other clubs he’ll play for. But he has no doubt about one thing: He’ll play for Guadeloupe as long as they keep calling.
An early standout in Les Abymes, Archimède was in mainland France by the time kids in the U.S. are learning to drive. But he was always back to play for the national team, which he started representing at the youth levels when he was 12.
That has continued for the past decade, with Archimède making trips from the mainland, from the Northeastern U.S. and the last two seasons from the West Coast where, as a member of Sacramento Republic, he helped Guadeloupe secure promotion to Concacaf Nations League A in November.
“I would never reject the national team. Even if it could put my career in danger, I’d say my national team comes first. Even though it’s a small island, I value it in my heart like it’s the biggest nation in the world,” he told me last week.
“If it was a bigger country, people wouldn’t ask me to think about the decision, they’d just say, ‘Damn, it’s logical. You have to go play for your country!’”
It may be an easier sell now that Guadeloupe will be playing top teams from Concacaf trying to get into the CNL quarterfinals and beyond.
Playing for his country is still special for Archimède but is nothing new. At the U-20 level, he was spotted by an agent who stayed in touch with him even as the forward forged on in France. From the Sochaux academy, he jumped to the U.S. college setup and was drafted by the New York Red Bulls after a pair of seasons with Syracuse.
The senior national team always was a goal, with Archimède hoping to provide kids like him born in Guadeloupe inspiration that they can make it as professional players.
“Seeing that football can put a smile on people’s face and seeing how proud my family was when I was playing, that really pushed me to do my best and try to represent my country the best I can,” he said.
The call-ups are definitely still coming from Jocelyn Angloma. During his playing career, Angloma made stops at clubs like PSG and Valencia - and represented France and later Guadelopue. The manager is getting good production from Archimède, who scored in two of four Nations League matches he played this cycle and helped spark a number of scoring chances with his good transition play.
In the Gold Cup prelims, he scored a long-awaited first senior team goal, chipping in during a 5-0 victory over Antigua and Barbuda.
Despite not returning to the scoresheet in last month’s convincing wins over Sint Maarten and St, Kitts and Nevis, Archimède insisted the team spirit is so strong, he’s not worried about finding the back of the net as long as he’s contributing.
“It’s not about my personal stats or even my playing time. If I can help the team being a starter, I’m going to be a good starter. If it’s by being a substitute, I’ll be a substitute. If it’s by being a fan watching the game at home, I’m going to cheer for them,” he said. “There’s a lot of good players on the Guadeloupe national team.
“I know I’m not going to start every game, so whenever I start I give my best and remember I’m playing for the kids, for my family and for my country.”
Archimède’s perception that Guadeloupe should be taken just as seriously as other national teams is currently being backed up by results.
Les Gwada Boys allowed a late rally by Guatemala and missed advancing from Gold Cup Group D by a point but were happy with the tournament overall after getting into the group stage thanks to a qualification win and securing a draw with Canada and a win over Cuba.
After missing out on Nations League promotion in the previous campaign - “It was on us, so there was a lot of frustration,” Archimède noted of March 2023 losses to Antigua and Barbuda and Cuba - Guadeloupe put together a five-win, one-loss campaign to coast to a place in League A.
Soccer is the top sport in Guadeloupe, with many top France national team and Ligue 1 talents either born on the cluster of islands or eligible for the national team because of family heritage. As an overseas department of France, however, Guadeloupe still is not a FIFA member and many of the top eligible talents opt to play for Les Bleus or stay and work with their club teams rather than make the frequent trips across the Atlantic that international duty demands.
In some overseas departments, the national teams participating in Concacaf give an outlet to a desire for a political change in how the French Overseas Departments (French Guiana and Martinique have the same status and also will compete in the CNL 24-25 League A).
Archimède emphasized that he was speaking only for himself but feels that representing the national team is an opportunity to express a true identity, different from that of Metropolitan France.
“Guadeloupe is really different from France. French people and Guadeloupean people are completely different. For me, France and Guadeloupe are completely opposite,” he said. “Being able to show the world that even as tiny islands with around 400,000 people, we can do really big things, was really big for us.”
“We’re tiny!” he continued. “When you look at the map, you can’t even see us. You really have to zoom, zoom, zoom, but we want to show that even if you have to do that because we have core values and love each other and our identity, that makes us strong and proud of what we are.”
The joy he gets expressing himself with the national team made it that much more difficult in October when he had to choose whether to play in Guadeloupe’s CNL matches or stay with his club, Sacramento Republic, which was the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference heading into the USL Championship Playoffs.
After picking up a knock with Guadeloupe in September, he opted to stay with his club - just this once - but hopes the calendar will set up to where club and country won’t be an either/or for him in the future.
After six goals in 29 appearances for Sacramento this season and a run to the Western Conference final, Archimède is moving on. He hopes to land at a different USL Championship club where his goal is to score 15 goals or more since, “It’s time for me to finally transform my talent into results.”
And, of course, he wants to be at a club whose directors understand that, to him, representing Guadeloupe is just as important as other players suiting up for teams like France or the U.S.
Loved reading this, Jon! Thanks for this story!
Incredible quotes