Few World Cup journeys have begun with a LinkedIn message. Fewer still have started with a message that went unread for nine months. Yet that unlikely sequence of events would ultimately change the life of Roberto “Pico” Lopes and help shape one of Cape Verde’s greatest football stories.
Roberto “Pico” Lopes was born in Crumlin, Ireland to a Cape Verdean father and an Irish mother, grew up all his life being Irish until a call came to represent his fatherland. One of Cape Verde’s key figures today once worked at the Bank of Ireland.
He played football for fun with Bohemians, before turning professional after joining Shamrock Rovers in November 2016. He starred for Shamrock Rovers, becoming a starter and a regular in 2017 after a short period with impressive performances.
He went on to win his first league title in 2020, before winning an additional three league titles in a row. In 2024, he was handed the captain’s armband and led the team to another league title in 2025, completing the double for the first time since 1987.
Now let’s go back a few years. In 2018, Cape Verde were scouting for professional footballers with Cape Verdean heritage and coach Rui Águas came across Pico Lopes. He messaged Lopes on LinkedIn to propose his idea for a call up to the national team while Lopes was working part time as a mortgage advisor then and still playing professional football.
Lopes did not understand Portuguese and just thought of it as spam. Nine months later, Águas messaged again, this time in English, asking if he had considered the offer. Surprised and excited, he went back to the first message and translated it revealing the content.
He seized the opportunity.
While speaking to Sky Sports in an interview in the USA before Cape Verde’s first game, Lopes gave details of the fascinating story. “Yeah, it’s crazy. I’m sure, like many people have heard it before, but how I was contacted to play in the national team was through LinkedIn.It was a profile I set up when I was in college many years ago.And the manager at the time, Rui Águas, contacted me and sent me a message in Portuguese, which I didn’t understand at the time, so, showing my ignorance, I ignored it.I just thought it was spam and thought nothing of it.But thankfully, nine months later, he wrote back to me in English and I understood.I apologised so much to him and said, ‘If the opportunity is still there to play international football for Cape Verde, I’d love to be a part of it.’And thankfully it was.A few weeks later, we got the paperwork done and I was playing for them in Marseille against Togo.”
And thanks to that decision, Lopes has gone to become a massive part of the national team. He represented the nation in the 2021 and 2023 editions of the African Cup of Nations.
In October 2025, he helped the country qualify for its first ever World Cup getting grouped with Spain, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia, and Lopes has his sights set on getting past the group stage.
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. “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.”
Now, as Cape Verde continues to test itself against some of the world’s most established football nations, what Lopes carries is bigger than just the hopes of a team making history. He represents the power of heritage, opportunity, and the unexpected moments that can alter the course of a life.
Had that LinkedIn message remained unanswered forever, this story might never have happened. Instead, it became the first chapter of an extraordinary World Cup journey.
