Opinion Cape Verde, and a FIFA World Cup inspiration

Football is no stranger to fairy tales. Yet, Cape Verde’s World Cup qualification is remarkable. It has little footballing heritage and has barely produced a talent of note. Some of them, like France’s Patrick Evra and Portugal’s Nani had remote Verdean ancestry. None of their diasporic players playing in the European leagues are A-listers. The only familiar name in the group and entourage is technical director Rui Costa, the former Portugal midfielder with the most silken of first touches.

But their moment of glory was not an alignment of favourable stars. It came from systematic planning. The biggest challenge was population. Only 5.25 lakh inhabit the island, the second least populated country to have qualified for the world’s grandest sporting spectacle. Nearly as many have migrated to different corners of the globe. The 25-member squad was made of members born in France, Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Cape Verde. All 25 play for 25 different clubs in 16 different countries. Uniting them was one of the stiffest challenges they faced in establishing a competitive side capable of World Cup qualification. But the federation officials personally reached out to players of Cape Verdean ancestry and coaxed them into turning up for them.

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The recruitment drive was not an overnight process — it began in 2019 under the watch of former coach Rui Agas. The biggest unifier was language, a Cape Verdean dialect of Creole. Their families, wherever they went, preserved and passed on the language. Local music blared during practice sessions to strike a cultural chord. With the funds from FIFA, they built a state-of-the-art stadium. The president wanted to name it after Pele, before someone told him that the Brazilian had never visited the country. Whether they succeed on the biggest stage or not, they offer valuable lessons to all nations with sporting ambitions. That size and population, heritage or history, are no excuses for unfulfilled dreams. For Cape Verdean footballers, it is not the end of a dream, but the start of a new one.