Willem Varela Could End the Liga’s World Cup Drought as Cape Verde Faces Spain

Cape Verde, the small African nation, faces Spain tonight, Monday, in a World Cup meeting that is being framed as an uphill battle against the team many consider the tournament favorite. Maccabi Tel Aviv winger Helio Varela is expected to begin on the bench in the opening phase.

For Maccabi Tel Aviv, the financial benefit from Varela’s participation depends only on how long he stays at the tournament, not on his minutes or performance, because he is unavailable for club training. Since this is his second year with the club, the payment is estimated at about $7,300 per day during the group stage.

Varela supplied an assist in the second half of Cape Verde’s warm-up match against Serbia, after coming on for captain Ryan Mendes. He did not play in the other friendly, a 3-0 win over Bermuda. Against Spain, Opta gives Cape Verde only a 4.8% chance of an upset, compared with 87.2% for a Spanish win.

Varela could become the first Liga HaAl player to appear at a World Cup. Kengji Hora did not feature in Curacao’s 7-1 loss to Germany, while Christian Martinez is expected to start for Panama later on. Former Maccabi Haifa player Frantzdy Pierrot played 90 minutes in Haiti’s 1-0 loss to Scotland. Varela could also be the first league player involved in a World Cup since Nigerian Joao Oshinuwa in 2014; in 2018, John Ogu and Predrag Rajkovic were not used, and in 2022 there was no Liga HaAl representative at all.