June 13 (Reuters) - When Roberto Lopes was originally contacted by the Cape Verdean football association onLinkedIn, he did what many people do with unsolicited messages on the professional social media platform - he ignored it, almost costing him the chance to play at the 2026 World Cup.
The teak-tough, Irish-born central defender thought the message in Portuguese was spam and did not bother replying. It was only when he received a follow-up message in English that he realised it was an offer to play international football for Cape Verde, who take on Spain in their opening World Cup group game on Monday.
"Nine months later they messaged me back in English asking if I had thought about the proposal, and it was only then that I did what I should have done originally and Google-translated the original message asking if I would be interested in declaring for Cape Verde," a laughing Lopes told Reuters in a telephone interview prior to the tournament.
"It was a weird angle to come at (via LinkedIn); it was explained to me afterwards that they had difficulty contacting my club, but when I sawthe opportunity was there in front of me, I was 100% behind it from the minute one, and we got working on getting all the necessary documentation across."
Known universally in the game by his nickname of "Pico", the 33-year-old has played his entire career in the League of Ireland for Bohemian FC and Shamrock Rovers and, with very few players from that league making it to the international stage, never mind the finals of a major tournament, he was sure his experience at that level was going to stay as one U19 cap for Ireland.
Instead, the message saw him link up with the country of his father's birth, making his debut in a 2-0 win over Togo in 2019 and going on to become a lynch-pin in the defence of a team that quickly began punching above their weight, eventually qualifying for the World Cup with a 3-0 win over Eswatini in October.
"When I came into the squad in 2019, I felt there was a great group of players there, the goal at the time was to get to the AFCON (African Cup of Nations), which we did, and we were mixing with some of the best teams in Africa," Lopes explained.
"Through that, we gained a lot of confidence within our group and some more lads with dual nationality declared, and it just kind of bolstered our squad as well."
After narrowly missing out on the 2022 World Cup, Cape Verde topped their group ahead of Egypt at the 2023 AFCON tournament and were knocked out by South Africa in the quarter-finals.
"We just felt like we were up there with some of the best teams in Africa, we could definitely mix with them on their day. With the new format that FIFA introduced and more teams in Africa that can qualify for the World Cup, the extra little bit of motivation was there for us to say, 'let's do everything we can to qualify and create history'," Lopes said.
Their reward for that successful qualifying campaign is a spot in Group H with Spain, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay, and Lopes and his team are relishing the opportunity to pit themselves against the best the world has to offer.
"I think we have to try and get out of the group, that has to be the goal. You can't really say you want to get to the final, I think the first hurdle is trying to get out of your group, trying to stay there a bit longer," he said.
"We know it will be difficult, we're in a tough group, but we have to believe we can do it - we got here on merit, and we have to be competitive now."
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor; editing by Clare Fallon)
