How a LinkedIn message helped Cape Verde qualify for their first ever World Cup

Martin Macdonald

• 14 Oct 2025 06:03 CDT
• 4 min read

News

Cape Verde have successfully qualified for the World Cup for the first time as they will take to the stage at the 2026 edition of the tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Despite having never qualified for the World Cup before, they have been remarkably consistent in qualifying for this tournament as from 10 matches played they have won seven, drawn two and lost just one, with 23 points on the board and a goal difference of +8.

They have topped Group D in African Qualifying ahead of Cameroon, Libya, Angola, Mauritius Eswatini to automatically qualify for the World Cup.

One player in their squad has enjoyed a remarkable yet unconventional rise in international football.

Roberto 'Pico' Lopes was born in Dublin, Ireland to a Cape Verdean father and Irish mother. He may be 33-years-old now but has only represented two clubs at senior level - Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers.

For the latter, he has made over 250 appearances.

Despite being a consistent performer in the top division in Ireland, it never seemed like an international call-up was on the cards for Lopes.

Not an international call-up from the Republic of Ireland, at least, despite one appearance for the Under-19 squad in 2011.

Incredibly, Lopes was approached to play for the Cape Verde national team via a message on LinkedIn around five years ago - which he ignored.

“When I was in college, one of our modules required us to set up a LinkedIn account,” Lopes previously told CNN Sport.

“And it ended up being through LinkedIn, maybe five or six years later, the manager at the time messaged me in Portuguese, which I didn’t understand. I just thought it was a welcome message … so I ignored it.”

Cape Verde head coach Rui Aguas, nine months later, then messaged again, this time in English.

The player realised he was receiving a genuine offer to represent the country of his mother's heritage at international level.

Lopes' rise sounds like a gimmick, but he has emerged as one of his adopted country's best players and played eight of those 10 matches in World Cup Qualifying.

He has played in two African Cup of Nations tournaments with Cape Verde, though they failed to qualify for the upcoming tournament in a couple of months.

That won't be on their minds at the moment, though, as the players have a World Cup berth to think about.

"It means everything, since I was a little boy I dreamed of playing football at the highest level" 🤩

Reaction as Cape Verde qualified for the World Cup, becoming the second smallest nation to reach the finals 🇨🇻 pic.twitter.com/bMYme7oKcK

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) October 14, 2025

Cape Verde qualify for the World Cup for the first time

Following Cape Verde's qualification, Lopes spoke to Sky Sports in his charming Irish accent to describe how he was feeling.

"I can’t put it into words. An overwhelming sense of relief," he explained.

"There’s joy, there’s all sorts of emotions. It’s an amazing feeling. We did it.

"Our goal, our objective, we did it.

"It means everything to be, ever since I was a little boy. Since we were all little kids playing football, we dreamed of playing football at the highest stage.

"And, there’s no bigger stage than the World Cup.

"To do this, to be the first Cape Verdean team to do this, to lift all the people, the nation, to put them on that stage - there’s no better feeling than that."

Cape Verde as the second-smallest nation every to qualify for the World Cup.