Roberto Lopes played a star role in one of the World Cup’s most shocking results on Monday, but it may not have happened without LinkedIn.
Also known as Pico, the 33-year-old defender was born in a Dublin suburb to an Irish mother and a father from Cape Verde, a Portuguese-speaking island nation off the west coast of Africa.
He has spent the last 16 years playing in Ireland’s top division but only made one international appearance for the country, at the Under-19 level, back in 2011. For some years, Lopes only played soccer part-time while working in a bank, he told FIFA.
It looked like he would never get the chance to play international soccer at the senior level, let alone play in a World Cup. Then, Cape Verde’s head coach messaged him on LinkedIn.
“I ignored [it] for nine months because it was in Portuguese, which I didn’t understand at the time,” Lopes told RTÉ, the Irish broadcaster, in a video published Monday.
Then, Lopes said, the coach messaged him again in English. “When I realized what opportunity was on the cards here, I jumped at it,” he added.
Lopes played his first game for Cape Verde in 2019.
The country is an archipelago of 10 islands in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of West Africa. With a population of around 530,000, roughly the same size as Kansas City, it is the third-smallest country ever to qualify for a World Cup.
The team played its opening game against Spain, one of the favorites to win the trophy and ranked second in the world. Most expected Cape Verde to concede goal after goal, the day after Germany thrashed Curaçao 7-1.
But Lopes and his teammates ripped up the script. They were well-organized and impassioned as they defended attack after attack from the reigning European champions, holding them to an historic 0-0 tie.
Cape Verde’s 40-year-old goalkeeper, Vozinha, was named the man of the match and gained over 7 million Instagram followers after the game.
Lopes, a center back, played a vital role in securing Cape Verde’s point as well. He blocked three shots and cleared the ball away 11 times.
“Growing up, I was well aware of my Cape Verdean heritage through my father,” he told RTÉ. “It’s probably something that I probably neglected for a long time or didn’t really look into, in terms of not learning the language or not knowing a lot about the country. “
“Through football and joining the national team, it gave me the opportunity to look back and reflect and learn loads about my heritage and the culture, and it’s something that I really enjoy to this day.”
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