Shamrock Rovers centre-back Roberto ‘Pico’ Lopes says Cape Verde’s World Cup campaign has put the country firmly on the map.
The underdog story of the tournament, Cape Verde’s debut World Cup came to a heartbreaking yet heroic end with a 3-2 extra-time defeat to Lionel Messi’s Argentina in the Round of 32.
The defending champions were grateful to avoid what would have been one of the World Cup’s biggest-ever shocks.
With a population of around 525,000 people, Cape Verde came into the tournament ranked 67th in the world.
“We’ve put ourselves on the map,” said the 33-year-old Dublin-born defender, who played in all four of Cape Verde’s matches.
“One of the best things to come from this World Cup is nobody asks where Cape Verde is on the map any more – this is history in itself for us.
“We’re a small nation but with big hearts and we showed what is possible – and if you believe, you can achieve.”
Defeat to Argentina followed three group-stage draws, including holding European champions Spain 0-0 in their opening game.
They also drew 2-2 with Uruguay and 0-0 with Saudi Arabia.
Approach
After the Spain game, Lopes, whose father is from the island nation, revealed that he’d ignored an initial approach from the team’s then head coach Rui Aguas via LinkedIn (in October 2018) because written in Portuguese he thought it was Spam.
Aguas tried again a few months later in English and this time Lopes accepted. That was in September 2019.
He duly made his debut for the Blue Sharks in 2019.
Lopes was employed as a mortgage adviser while playing part-time for Bohemians between 2010 and 2016, before landing a full-time contract with Shamrock Rovers in 2017.
He represented Ireland at underage level in his teenage years, partnering the likes of John Egan at the heart of the Irish defence.
In 2025, he captained Stehen Bradley’s Rovers side to the League of Ireland Premier Division and FAI Cup double for the first time since 1987.
That was sealed with a 2-0 win over Cork City in the FAI Cup final at the Aviva in November.
The previous month Lopes had helped Cape Verde qualify for their first-ever World Cup by topping their CAF group ahead of Cameron, Libya, Angola, Mauritius and Eswatini.
