Roberto 'Pico' Lopes thought he was going to his parents' house for Sunday lunch. Instead, the street was lined with flags and the whole neighbourhood had turned out to see him off. The 33-year-old Shamrock Rovers defender is heading to Cape Verde's first-ever World Cup — and Dublin wanted him to know they noticed.
"When I saw all the flags I might have suspected this could be a party rather than a feast," he told RTE. Fair enough, Pico.
A World Cup place that nearly never happened
The origin story here is genuinely unlikely. Cape Verde's federation first contacted Lopes via LinkedIn in 2018. He ignored it. Thought it was spam. A follow-up message arrived, he translated it this time, and his international career was born. He made his debut in 2019 and hasn't looked back — starting nine of Cape Verde's ten World Cup qualifying games and playing a central role in their run to the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals.
One deleted message and none of this happens.
Lopes qualifies through his Cape Verdean father Carlos, but he grew up in Crumlin, south Dublin, and still plays his club football in the League of Ireland with Shamrock Rovers. His neighbour Sheena Heavey put it plainly: "He's the only Irish person to play in the World Cup for a long, long time."
She's not wrong. Ireland last reached the finals in 2002 and were knocked out in the playoff semi-finals this cycle, losing on penalties to the Czech Republic. So Irish football fans will have a reason to tune in this summer — just not under the green jersey.
What Cape Verde are walking into
Group H is not kind. Cape Verde open against European champions Spain on June 15, then face Uruguay and Saudi Arabia. Realistically, progression is a stretch. Spain's defensive record alone makes Cape Verde worth avoiding in the match betting for that opener.
But reaching a first-ever World Cup and drawing Spain, Uruguay, and Saudi Arabia? For a nation of half a million people, just being there is the story. Lopes is expected to be named in the squad on Monday. The party in Crumlin already happened. Now comes the hard part.
