Via LinkedIn to the World Cup & debut at 40! Cape Verde's wild tales

Via LinkedIn to the World Cup & debut at 40! Cape Verde's wild tales The Spaniards could hardly believe it. After more than 90 minutes, the World Cup favorites were still locked at 0-0 against underdogs Cape Verde. Goalkeeper Vozinha and center-back Roberto Lopes played a huge part in this sensation.  At 40, the keeper 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 of the African island nation. Vozinha made seven saves against Torres, Pedri and company.  No wonder so many viewers were asking during the match: just who is this absolute beast in Cape Verde’s goal? His Instagram following alone exploded while the game was still being played.  Before kickoff, he was still at 43,000. After 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 scout and develop their players over years, Cape Verde found one of their current key performers in a very 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 through the network in 2019. It asked whether he could imagine playing for the Cape Verde national team. At first, however, Lopes paid no attention to the request. “I thought it was spam,” he recalls. 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.