Via LinkedIn to the World Cup & 40-year-old debutant! Cape Verde's tale | OneFootball

The Spaniards could hardly believe it. After more than 90 minutes, the score was still 0-0 as World Cup favorites Spain faced underdogs Cape Verde. Goalkeeper Vozinha and center-back Roberto Lopes played a huge part in this sensation. 

At 40 years old, the goalkeeper made his World Cup debut and delivered an outstanding performance between the posts against the European champions. At times, the Spaniards were left in despair by the number one from the African island nation. Vozinha made seven saves against Torres, Pedri and Co. 

It was no surprise, then, that many viewers were asking during the match who exactly this devil of a goalkeeper in Cape Verde’s net was. His Instagram follower count alone exploded during the game. 

Before kick-off, he was still at 43,000; by the end of the match, that number had already risen to more than 1.3 million followers.

 Another crazy story surrounds one of the World Cup underdog’s defenders. While many national associations monitor and develop their players over the course of years, Cape Verde found one of its current key performers in a highly unusual way. Roberto Lopes was not discovered through traditional scouting — but via LinkedIn.

Born in Dublin and with family roots in Cape Verde, he received an unexpected message on the platform in 2019. It asked whether he could imagine playing for the Cape Verde national team. At first, however, Lopes paid no attention to the inquiry. “I thought it was spam,” he recalled. Only after the federation contacted him again — this time in English — did he respond. That reply marked the beginning of a remarkable journey all the way to the World Cup.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 ROBERTO SCHMIDT - AFP or licensors