A reflection on a national side that did not win the World Cup, yet left behind one of its most moving stories
Independent sports analyst and regional development consultant
(Former senior public official with international experience and a longstanding commitment to public policy and sports development)
When the final whistle sounded in New York and the newly crowned world champions began their celebrations, another World Cup came to an end. It will be remembered not only for its thrilling matches, its constellation of stars, and its unexpected triumphs and disappointments, but also for the many human stories that reached far beyond victory and defeat on the pitch.
Of all those stories, none moved me more deeply than Cabo Verde.
I therefore wish to dedicate this article to all my Cabo Verdean friends. I do so not only because, over the years, I have encountered among the people of this country genuine friendship, generosity and a profound sense of belonging, but also because, in Macau and abroad, I have had the privilege of meeting Cabo Verdeans who have distinguished themselves in a wide range of professional fields — from medicine, law and engineering to journalism, diplomacy, international relations, sport and the Olympic Movement — contributing to the societies in which they live while maintaining a strong connection to their roots. For all these reasons, I followed the extraordinary journey of the Blue Sharks — the Tubarões Azuis — at this World Cup with particular emotion.
In every match, I saw more than a national team.
I saw a small island nation, a vast diaspora spread across the world, and a people who, despite distance, limited resources and countless difficulties, have never lost their dignity, optimism or hope.
At this World Cup, Cabo Verde faced both of the teams that would eventually reach the final. First, they held the formidable Spanish side to a goalless draw. Then, in the round of 16, they took Argentina into extra time before narrowly losing 3–2.
This was no accident, nor was it simply one of those occasional fairy tales that football produces.
It was the result of careful planning, a shared sense of identity and competitive courage.
It was organisation combined with fighting spirit.
Starting players of Cabo Verde pose before the round of 32 match between Argentina and Cabo Verde at the 2026 FIFA World Cup at Miami Stadium in Miami, the United States, on July 3, 2026. – Xinhua
An Unexpected Hero — and a Connection with Macau
Cabo Verde’s remarkable story had already begun in the group stage.
Against tournament favourites Spain, the islanders built an extraordinary defensive wall.
Standing in goal was a 40-year-old goalkeeper. He seemed to defy time itself, producing one decisive save after another under relentless Spanish pressure. In doing so, he became the symbol of a team that refused to accept a supporting role and showed the world just how strong its determination could be.
His full name is Josimar José Évora Dias, though the football world knows him simply as Vozinha.
Spain controlled possession for long periods, circulated the ball patiently, created repeated attacks and tried every possible way to break down Cabo Verde’s defensive structure.
Yet they could not succeed.
In front of Vozinha stood a disciplined team built on mutual trust. Behind him, it seemed as though the whole of Cabo Verde was standing with him, helping to push the ball away from goal each time danger approached.
Vozinha made seven saves during the match, and his performance earned widespread praise throughout the international football community.
What made his achievement even more striking was that, when he arrived at the World Cup, his contract with Portuguese club Grupo Desportivo de Chaves had just expired and the next stage of his career remained uncertain.
He stepped onto football’s greatest stage carrying that uncertainty with him, yet his outstanding performance against Spain made him one of the tournament’s most talked-about players.
Today, elite football is often associated with enormous contracts, teams of agents and carefully managed careers.
Yet a veteran goalkeeper from a small African country, already 40 years of age, reminded the world that genuine quality can still reveal itself at the most important moment.
There is also a small and intriguing connection with Macau.
Not long ago, a fellow countryman told me that Benfica de Macau had once approached the Cabo Verdean goalkeeper to explore the possibility of signing him.
The move did not materialise because the Macau club was unable to meet the salary conditions being requested at the time.
I do not possess sufficient information to verify every detail of this episode, so I can only present it as a personal account related to me by a friend.
Even so, it is fascinating to think that the goalkeeper who later stopped Spain may once have come within a step of standing between the posts in Macau.
Football history is sometimes made up precisely of such stories — paths that almost crossed, but ultimately passed each other by.
A fan of Cabo Verde cheers for the team before the round of 32 match between Argentina and Cabo Verde at the 2026 FIFA World Cup at Miami Stadium in Miami, the United States, on July 3, 2026. – Xinhua
A Mother, a Visa and an Act of Kindness Across Borders
After the match against Spain, Vozinha revealed emotionally that his mother had been unable to attend because of visa difficulties and the cost of the journey.
At the time, Cabo Verde was among the countries whose citizens, when applying for certain United States visas, could be required to provide a financial bond of up to US$15,000. For most Cabo Verdean families, such a sum represented an almost insurmountable barrier.
His words quickly attracted international media attention.
Over the following days, the relevant authorities, the Cabo Verdean Football Federation and officials connected with the World Cup worked together to help his mother, Ana Cândida Évora, complete the procedures necessary to travel to the United States.
But even before the story gained international attention, an act of private kindness was already quietly under way.
Lin Jie, a Chinese businessman who has lived in Cabo Verde for many years, contacted Vozinha’s family and helped them follow the application process. He also prepared a suitcase, clothing, shoes and other items needed for Ana Cândida Évora’s journey. The Cabo Verdean Football Federation covered the visa and transport costs.
Ana Cândida Évora eventually arrived in the United States and was able to watch Cabo Verde play Uruguay at the World Cup.
It became one of the tournament’s most touching moments.
After the match, mother and son were reunited beside the stands. They embraced in tears as supporters around them rose to applaud.
During her stay in the United States, Ana Cândida Évora also had the opportunity to meet the President of FIFA.
Yet what made the moment unforgettable was not the VIP box, the official protocol or the media cameras.
It was the embrace between a mother and her son.
For those few minutes, the world was reminded that behind every footballer there is a family, a personal journey and countless sacrifices that rarely appear on television screens.
It was a victory for humanity.
It was also a victory for kindness over distance, administrative obstacles and the harsh realities of life.
Fans watch Cabo Verde's FIFA World Cup match against Argentina in Praia, Cabo Verde, on July 3, 2026. - Xinhua
A Global Strength — How the Diaspora Built Cabo Verde
Cabo Verde became independent in 1975 and today has a resident population of only a little over half a million.
Yet more Cabo Verdeans live abroad than on the islands themselves.
The Cabo Verdean Football Federation understood early on that the diaspora was not merely the historical result of migration, but also an enormously valuable source of talent.
Under head coach Pedro Leitão Brito, known as Bubista, the federation spent years identifying and approaching players of Cabo Verdean descent who had been born or trained in countries such as Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland and the United States.
Many of them might never have had the opportunity to represent the senior national sides of their countries of birth.
Cabo Verde, however, offered them more than the chance to play international football.
It offered them the opportunity to represent their family roots and the homeland of their parents and grandparents.
The federation also understood that identifying players abroad was not enough. The greater challenge was convincing them to make that choice.
It therefore conveyed a simple but powerful message:
“In Europe, you may be just one player among many; in Cabo Verde, you can become a national hero.”
Many accepted the invitation.
They gradually came to understand that representing the country of their parents or grandparents was not merely a way of adding a few international appearances to their careers.
It was an opportunity to help write a new chapter in the history of Cabo Verdean football.
The story of Roberto “Pico” Lopes is one of the best-known examples.
Born in Dublin to a Cabo Verdean father and an Irish mother, he once received a message in Portuguese through LinkedIn.
Unable to understand it, he assumed it was spam and ignored it.
Only when a second message arrived in English did he realise that the Cabo Verde national team was inviting him to represent the country.
A LinkedIn message that was almost overlooked eventually carried him all the way to the World Cup.
A young footballer wears a boot signed by Cabo Verde national team goalkeeper Vozinha during a training session at the Integrated Football Development School (EPIF) in Praia, Cabo Verde, on July 2, 2026. – AFP
Ordinary Lives, an Extraordinary Team
Other players reached this point only after years of balancing demanding work with their footballing ambitions.
As a young man, Garry Rodrigues worked night shifts in a warehouse in the Netherlands, loading and packing goods. He trained during the day and fought for opportunities in amateur football.
Dailon Livramento likewise completed eight hours of physical labour each day before travelling to evening training sessions. Through the most difficult years, he built his professional career little by little.
Such experiences helped shape the character of this team.
World Cup audiences saw footballers on the pitch. Behind each one, however, lay a story of effort, perseverance and sacrifice — a world far removed from the glamour so often associated with elite professional football.
The Cabo Verde national team was itself a reflection of the country’s global diaspora.
Its players represented different leagues and different countries, yet were brought together by shared heritage, cultural identity and the Creole language spoken in the dressing room. They knew they were representing a people whose territory and population may be small, but whose communities are spread across the world.
The squad list alone demonstrated this reality.
Twenty-six players came from 25 different clubs across 14 countries.
Few teams at this World Cup embodied so clearly the history of a people dispersed around the globe, while also displaying such a powerful sense of national unity.
What connected them was not the leagues in which they played, nor the badges of their clubs.
It was the blue national shirt they wore on their chests.
The diaspora therefore ceased to be merely the consequence of people having been forced to leave their homeland.
It became a source of strength, bringing together those who remained on the islands, those who had migrated abroad, and later generations born elsewhere who continued to regard themselves as Cabo Verdean.
Bubista and the Football Made from Old Socks
Bubista understands all of this deeply.
As a former captain of the Cabo Verde national team, he knows better than most how limited grassroots football resources have historically been in the country.
As a child, he sometimes played in the street with a ball made from old socks and sewn together by his mother.
That experience helps explain much of what Cabo Verde displayed at this World Cup.
Those who grow up with very little learn to value every opportunity.
Bubista understood that even an imperfect football can carry a child’s dreams, and that limited conditions do not prevent a person from having great ambitions.
Perhaps that is why he succeeded in instilling a very simple idea in his players:
The national team shirt is never merely a piece of sportswear.
It represents the link between the islands and the diaspora, the emotional bond between those who left and those who stayed, and the shared identity passed from one generation to the next.
Under his leadership, Cabo Verde assembled players from very different backgrounds.
Some were born on the islands; others grew up in Europe or North America. Some played in prominent leagues; others had spent years working quietly in the lower divisions.
Yet when they put on the blue shirt, those differences disappeared.
Cabo Verde did not attempt to imitate the world’s strongest teams, nor did it pretend to possess resources that it did not have.
Instead, the team accepted its own circumstances, built a tactical system suited to its reality and transformed its limitations into collective strengths.
That was how it held Spain and took Argentina into extra time.
The Blue Sharks did not win the World Cup, but they proved that they fully deserved their place on football’s greatest stage.
More importantly, they never lost the humility and sincerity with which they had begun the journey.
Organisation, Cooperation and a Shared Belief
One detail perhaps reflects better than any other the difficult road travelled by Cabo Verdean football.
It was not until 2025 that the national team obtained its first official kit sponsor.
While the world’s footballing powers earn tens of millions of euros each year through equipment sponsorship agreements, Cabo Verde had only just begun to establish the foundations of its commercial operations shortly before reaching the World Cup.
The recent growth of Cabo Verdean football has also depended on improved infrastructure and support through international cooperation.
The Cabo Verde National Stadium, with a capacity of approximately 15,000 spectators, was financed with assistance from the Chinese Government and built by a Chinese state-owned enterprise. Officially opened in 2014, it has since become one of the national team’s principal home grounds and a tangible symbol of friendship and cooperation between China and Cabo Verde.
A stadium does not score goals or make saves.
Yet a proper sporting venue can nurture talent, give a national team a genuine home ground and help a country begin to believe that it can compete against opponents far stronger than itself.
Cabo Verde’s success is the accumulated result of many factors.
Effective federation management, the active identification of talent within the diaspora, continuity within the coaching structure, gradually improving training conditions, and a team culture built upon shared identity all contributed to the national side seen today.
The so-called “miracle” did not simply fall from the sky.
It came from years of work, sound decisions, persistence and the intelligent use of limited resources.
Yet some achievements, even when they can be clearly explained, still deserve to be called miracles.
That is because the distance between the starting point and the final destination is so great.
Such is the case with Cabo Verde.
A small country with a limited population, modest economic resources and players scattered around the world succeeded in building a competitive and disciplined national team that genuinely represented the feelings of its people.
It did not eliminate the inequalities of world football.
But it proved one thing:
A difference in resources does not always determine the final result.
When Football Belongs to the People Again
When the new world champions lifted the trophy in New York, people may have remembered the goals in the final, the performances of the stars and the decisive moments that determined the outcome.
I, too, will remember Cabo Verde.
I will remember Vozinha throwing himself across the goal against Spain, save after save, as though every leap carried the hopes of an entire archipelago.
I will remember a mother crossing the Atlantic simply to embrace her son.
I will remember the players who once worked in warehouses and other modest jobs, yet never abandoned their footballing dreams.
I will also remember a boy who once kicked a ball made from old socks, sewn by his mother, through the streets of his childhood — and who, many years later, led his country onto football’s greatest stage.
I will remember a national team of 26 players drawn from 25 clubs in 14 different countries.
Yet when they stepped onto the pitch, they appeared to come from the same neighbourhood, the same street and the same shared dream.
Above all, I will remember a people scattered across the world who, for a few brief weeks, were reunited by the same blue shirt.
Cabo Verde’s story offered a profound lesson to everyone who still believes in the spirit of sport.
In an age dominated by money, commercial contracts, global markets and brand power, a small country reminded the world once again that football can still embody the shared hopes of ordinary people.
A truly great national team is never built on talent alone.
It also requires clear planning, mutual trust, humility, sustained effort and the ability to unite people scattered across the world around a shared destiny.
Cabo Verde’s true miracle was not merely holding Spain to a draw or taking Argentina into extra time.
The real miracle was that a country with limited resources, a dispersed population and a long history of difficulty could stand on football’s greatest stage without ever losing its sense of identity.
The real miracle was making Cabo Verdeans living on the islands, in Europe, Africa, the Americas and elsewhere around the world sincerely believe that the team belonged to them as well.
The real miracle was making us believe once again that football can carry a mother across an ocean to embrace her son; reconnect those living abroad with the homeland of their ancestors; turn a nearly ignored LinkedIn message into a place on the World Cup stage; and carry a ball made from old socks in a modest home all the way to the greatest stadiums in the world.
Cabo Verde did not win the World Cup.
But it won something that no championship trophy can buy: it made us believe again that, before football belongs to the market, to television broadcasters or to major sponsors, it belongs first and foremost to the people.
End
N.B. Cabo Verde (“Green Cape”) is now the official and preferred designation in formal international English, while Cape Verde remains common in casual usage and older texts. The change stems from a formal request made by the country's government to the United Nations in 2013, asking that its official name no longer be translated into other languages.
Cabo Verde is an African island nation in the central Atlantic Ocean. An archipelago of 10 volcanic islands and several isles, it blends Portuguese and West African cultures. It is known for its warm climate, volcanic landscapes, stunning beaches, and traditional “morna” music. The republic, which gained independence from Portugal in 1975, has a population of 530,000. The country has a massive diaspora that outnumbers its domestic population. It is estimated that between 700,000 and well over one million Cape Verdeans live abroad. Its largest diaspora concentrations are found in the United States (particularly New England), Portugal, and the Netherlands. – Gemini, MPD
