Even by Lionel Messi’s absurd standards, he had produced a goal worthy of the Gods on Friday evening against Cape Verde. The way he killed that long diagonal from Lisandro Martinez before lifting it into the roof of the net belonged in a Museum. The first touch was majestic, only matched by the finish. But Friday night didn’t belong to Messi. He was part of the support cast. You could argue that it wasn’t the best goal scored on Friday. Heck, it wasn’t even the best goal scored on that side of the ground.
That honour went to Cape Verde, the story of this World Cup. When Sidny Lopes Cabral received the ball on Argentina’s defensive third, he still had a lot of work to do. But after dodging a defender who had come to press him, he shifted the ball to his right before striking a curling, dipping effort past the Argentina goalkeeper from the edge of the box. As soon as the ball hit the net, pandemonium broke out. Even the Argentina players, so used to seeing Messi do this in training, were shocked by what they had just seen.
Forget the fact they were eliminated at the hands of the holders in Miami. They helped the tournament rise above politics and showed why the World Cup mattered —continues to matter—to a lot of people across the globe. They are a small group of volcanic islands off the coast of West Africa, but by the time their thriller against Argentina finished, scores of football fans had already adopted them as their second team. Forget the fact that there are only 500,000 Cape Verdeans in nine of the 10 islands that make up their small country; just about every football fan will happily wear their colours from now till eternity.
When the tournament began on June 11, Vozinha, their 40-year-old goalkeeper, had 50,000 followers on Instagram. On Friday night, he had over 21 million followers, more than World Cup winners Iker Casillas, Gianluigi Buffon, Manuel Neuer and Emiliano Martinez. Without a club currently, but he’s one of the most famous unemployed people on the planet.
Vozinha, though, is just part of the story. It’s hard to tell the story of the Blue Sharks (their moniker) without mentioning how the Irish-born centre-back, Roberto Lopes, was recruited by the federation via LinkedIn. The former banker threw away everything he had built when the federation approached him for a second time. A career in international football was what he had hoped for. But even he wouldn’t have dreamt of a month like this. Six in the current team have links to Rotterdam, the Dutch city that’s home to 23,000 people of Cape Verdean descent.
Some of them were schooled here and went to football academies here, but even they wouldn’t have dared to dream of nights like this. This is the story of how a federation identified players with significant Cape Verdean heritage and convinced them to play for the country.
When midfielder Kevin Pina was in the US, a former international player-turned-scout saw him and convinced his parents to move back to Europe. The teenager moved back, with nothing but a prayer and a dream of representing the national team. In the US, Pina has held his own against the likes of Rodri (a former Ballon d’Or winner), Alexis Mac Allister (a World Cup winner) and Fede Valverde (a Real Madrid metronome who has won the Champions League.) It’s perhaps apt that this story was written in the land of Hollywood and the American Dream.
But, in reality, Cape Verde had always believed in themselves. Even before they had set out, there was quiet belief. “I don’t think we have anything to prove,” Vozinha had told the FIFA website after his country had qualified for the World Cup. “But we want to honour our country by giving our best as this is our first World Cup. We are not going there for a holiday,” remarked Vozinha.
Of course, not everyone shared this same belief.
Gennaro Gattuso, when he was still the Italian manager, had taken umbrage at the number of African teams at the World Cup. “It’s not a question for me, but it is for whoever draws up the rules and the groups,” he had said. Gattuso resigned after Italy failed to beat Bosnia & Herzegovina in a playoff. His insinuation was hard to miss, but what he had missed was Cape Verde would have qualified in the old 32-team tournament as group toppers.
Over the next two weeks, this tournament will see its greatest stars and heroes put their bodies on the line in the hope of winning the event. However, some heroes do not need shiny medals around their necks. Some heroes do not wear capes.