If Cuban athletes keep on defecting to the U.S. at this rate, they’re going to able to field a whole roster in any sport. Cuban soccer player Reinier Alcantara is the latest, using his national team’s visit to our nation’s capital this past weekend to say peace to his team and his country. Alcantara, who comes from the Pinar del Rio province, said he had enough of people looking for food and watching his town scrape by after the hurricanes. And while his teammate Pedro Faife also did the same last weekend, Faife was helped by family that was already here. Alone, Alcatara had to run six blocks as fast as he could and jump in a cab, only to get dropped off at a McDonalds to wait for a friend to drive down from New Jersey. Luckily the Mickey D’s staff didn’t enforce that 30 minute loitering rule.

On Friday morning, Alcantara met up with another friend, who took him shopping for food, clothing and toiletries, and drove home with him to Atlanta, where he will officially seek asylum and begin his new life. On Saturday night, he watched on television as Cuba lost 6-1 to the U.S. He felt bad for his teammates, but said he had no regrets. ”I love my team, but this is my life, and my future, and I had to do this,” he said.

Alcantara stressed that he will always love Cuba, and has only warm feelings toward his teammates and coaches. But he felt ”trapped” on the island, and had traveled enough through soccer to realize what life was like in other places. He was in East Rutherford, N.J., and Houston in 2007 for the Gold Cup, and the thought of defecting crossed his mind then, but he said family situations back home prevented him from doing so.

Ugh, it must be shitty in Cuba if you look around East Rutherford, NJ and say, “Wow, I really got to move here.” And luckily he didn’t decide to use his time in Houston to run out of the hotel and ditch the team. He’d probably end up on a highway somewhere and halfway to Austin by the time he realized it. That, or get hit by a lightrail train.

Earlier: Forget Banning The US Citizens Going There—Cuba Should Ban Their Athletes From Coming Here
Cuban Soccer Defectors Find Life In USA A-OK

Cuban soccer player: Freedom worth risk [Miami Herald]
Image [Miami Herald]