Half a season as a free agent did not impact Curacao's goalkeeper Eloy Room from helping his side secure a historic place at the 2026 World Cup.
As Ivan Barton blew the final whistle in Kingston, Eloy Room and his Curacao teammates dropped to their knees having got their nation to its first-ever World Cup finals.
“At that moment, you don't really realise the extent of what we did,” he tells Goalkeeper.com, adding: “You don't know what to think after the final whistle. So much happened and there were so many emotions at once. It was really crazy.”
Room’s biggest moment of the goalless draw against Jamaica came in the 17th minute, when he got down well to stop and then gather a sweetly struck Bobby De Cordova-Reid attempt, with a fortuitous bounce having seen the ball sit up invitingly for the Leicester City man.
From that moment, the 36-year-old’s feeling was “it doesn't matter what's going to happen, they're not going to score,” and that’s exactly how events played out.
In a chaotic ending, Bailey Cadamarteri hit the post, Jamaica went down to 10 men before having a penalty overturned by VAR, and balls were also relentlessly launched into Curacao’s box. “I had a calmness in myself and I knew it was going to be alright,” Room reflects despite everything that was happening. “I just tried to focus on each moment and also try to read the game, try to coach my defenders. That keeps you on your toes and keeps you sharp.”
That didn’t change even when it looked as though the Reggae Boyz would get their chance from the penalty spot, partly because he “saw clearly that it was not a penalty”. Although, as Room puts it, “in a game like this you never know”, and he reminisces on a conversation he had with Barton while waiting for the decision to be overturned.
“It doesn't matter if you give the penalty, I'll save it anyway,” he told him. “The ref was looking at me like, 'wow, this guy is crazy' but that was my feeling.”
As much as those will be the moments that the history books remember above all others, they are the culmination of far longer journeys. For the team, the qualification campaign started all the way back in June 2024, and “on paper it looks easy, but all the games are really tough in CONCACAF.”
It’s been an even longer mission for Room. “I started 10 years ago with the national team,” he says. “My goal was to reach the World Cup with Curacao, so to actually make it with a game as crazy as that, it was a really crazy feeling.”
Added to the challenges that already exist in breaking new ground for your country, Room has played his role for the nation while being without a club since departing Cercle Brugge in July.
He admits “it’s not easy” preparing for such important matches while being a free agent. “I train by myself with a personal trainer for gym work, and also on the field I train with a goalkeeper coach,” he shares. “It's obviously easier when you train with a club, but I had a goal in mind: I want to go to the World Cup. If I have a goal for myself, then I really give my all for it.”
What does that look like on a day-to-day basis? “Normally I do something every day, so that's gym work, field work, even padel,” Room says. “I play a lot of padel, it's a good exercise for me because it's full of reflexes and also cardio. So, I try to do all that stuff together and it works for me.”
He admits that training alone means “at the beginning it's always a little bit difficult” coming into a team environmen, adding “I can switch really quickly, so after a training session or two I'm back at it again. It's a nice feeling to be back with the national team.”
In addition to being without a team for that period, Room’s last appearance in club football was a Belgian Cup match against Sint-Truidense in December 2024. “You want to play every week and it's been a while since I played an official game for a club, but I also know those games for Curacao, I could really focus on those games,” he says. “I had a goal and a dream to go to the World Cup.”
He continues: “I was grateful that we had games almost every two, three weeks for the national team, so I knew what to focus on. I knew we had another game, so I prepared myself for that.”
As well as the preparation he puts in, Room also has a wealth of experience he could call upon during the qualifiers. The 36-year-old references the 2025 Gold Cup as something he and his teammates could draw from, as they kept a clean sheet against El Salvador and recovered from two goals being disallowed to score a 94th-minute equaliser against Canada through Jeremy Antonisse.
“Those experiences are really helpful for these kinds of games in the World Cup qualifiers, because you play against good teams and there's a lot on the line,” Room says. “That last Gold Cup was like a preparation for these qualifier games, and I think it helped us to grow as a team.”
Now that a place in the World Cup has become secured for Room and his nation, the enormity of their achievement has sunk in “a little bit more” after the celebrations back in Curacao.
“The whole island was there when we got to the airport,” he reminisces. “We had a tour through the city for a party in the city centre, so it was really crazy. The whole island was almost in lockdown because nobody was working, everybody was celebrating, so it was really nice to see. When I came back to Holland, you realise it more because you're home now.”
Even so, the goalkeeper is waiting to look ahead to the summer of 2026. “I think when we have the draw and we know who we will play against, then you can really focus on that. But for now, it's still so surreal that we made it to the World Cup. It's an unbelievable feeling.”
He admits that it would be “really special” to face the Netherlands and “play against the country where I was raised”, while there could be a shirt added to a collection but “[Lionel] Messi is already my highlight”.
There is also the possibility for Room to return to the United States of America, something that “feels almost like a full circle moment” after he won two MLS Cups and a Campeones Cup with Columbus Crew. He adds: “I've played in almost every stadium over there and every city, so I think that it can help me and I can help my teammates with my experiences.”
Room and his teammates will also be keen to make their mark on the tournament. “We can make it difficult for anyone, we're not an easy team to play against,” he declares. “We don't concede a lot of goals. We have a lot of speed up front, a lot of creativity, so I think we can make it difficult for every country if we just focus and give everything.”
There is still plenty of time between now and the moment they will step out at the World Cup, though, and the first step of Room’s preparation is to sign for a club. “From there, I can prepare for the World Cup, and we're also going to play friendlies and games to prepare with the national team. But my main focus now is to sign for a club and get playing time again.”
A deal with a club in USA is close, and as Room says himself: “It feels like everything comes together now in America.”
Curacao have been drawn in Germany's group, and will face the 2014 World Cup winners in their first game at the tournament.
