Roberto Lopes, the Shamrock Rovers defender currently living it up with his Cape Verde teammates at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, was contacted to play for the side in quite a unique way.
Lopes, who was born in Ireland to an Irish mother and Cape Verdean father, played a key role in his side's historic draw with Spain on Monday (June 15), was contacted to play for the team via LinkedIn.
Cape Verde first contacted Lopes about playing for them via the platform in 2018 by then manager, Rui Águas, a Portuguese native. However, the defender did not respond to the message which was sent in Portuguese, ignoring it, as he thought it was spam.
However, nine months later, Lopes received a second message in English, which he saw, realising the offer was kosher and the opportunities, endless, as it turns out. He graciously accepted. Lopes made his debut for Cape Verde against Togo in Marseille in an international friendly, and the rest as they say, is history.
Fast forward seven years, and Lopes is still marshalling his side's defence, with the result being that the side produced an historic shut out against Spain no less, the side won won the European Championships in 2024, and one of the pre tournament favourites.
In fact, Cape Verde did this with a wonderful style, producing one of the cleanest defensive displays fans have ever seen in the tournament, with one of the lowest foul counts registered by a team in the history of the World Cup.
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Cape Verde qualified for the World Cup after finishing first in their CAF World Cup qualifier group. They finished four points ahead of second place Cameroon. They sealed their place with a 3-0 victory over Eswatini at the National Stadium in Praia, in front of 15,000 fans on 13 October last year.
The Cape Verde government later declared the 13th October a bank holiday following this win.
Cape Verde's next World Cup game sees them face Uruguay on Sunday at 11pm Irish time.
