Roberto Lopes: Cabo Verdes hero vs Spain was recruited through LinkedIn

Cabo Verde's Pico Lopes jumps for the ball against Spain's Aymeric Laporte, and during the World Cup Group H soccer match between Spain and Cape Verde in Atlanta, Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP Photo) LinkedIn is a social media platform one would associate more with Football agents but not professional football players. However, 33-year-old Roberto Lopes, who plays as a defender for Shamrock Rovers in Ireland was recruited through LinkedIn to play for Cape Verde. On Monday, he made the crucial block in the 89th minute as the debutant island nation held European champions Spain to a 0-0 draw.“It is a crazy story of how I started in international football. Basically during college, I set up a LinkedIn account, connected with a few friends and left it in the dark for a few years,” Lopes told FIFPro. “Then one day, I got a message from the manager of the Cape Verde team at the time, Rui Aguas. He dropped a welcome message in Portuguese, which I didn’t speak at the time. I just assumed it was like, “thanks for connecting with me, message or spam.” Cape Verde's Roberto @PicoLopes almost missed out on international football because he ignored a LinkedIn message for nine months 😱 Today, he helped his country keep a clean sheet against European champions Spain. Hear his story on Footballers Unfiltered 🎙️#FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/PRe2B9w0rO — FIFPRO (@FIFPRO) June 15, 2026 Nine months went by and Lopes never thought about it. Once again, Aguas reached out but this time in English with a message, “Hi Roberto, have you had a chance to consider what I said to you?” Then Lopes copy and pasted the previous message to realize that it was an invitation to play for the Cape Verde National team. “I messaged him as quickly as I could, apologized profusely and said, look, if the opportunity is still available, I’d love to be a part of this. Three weeks later, I was in Marseille making my debut for Cape Verde,” said Lopes. Born to a Cape Verdean father and an Irish Mother, Lopes, who is popularly known as Pico, was working as a mortgage adviser at Dublin Bank in 2017 before Rovers offered him a full-time job as professional footballer.Story continues below this ad On Monday, he was one of the many heroes for the group of islands with about 4,000 square meters (about 2.5 miles) of landmass and approximately half a million inhabitants as they made their debut at the biggest sporting festival on the planet. © The Indian Express Pvt Ltd