Cape Verde Makes First World Cup, Built a Squad Through LinkedIn

Cape Verde has qualified for the World Cup for the first time in its history and will open against Spain. The tiny island nation has become the third-smallest country ever to reach the tournament, with a population of 593,139, and was previously surpassed only by Iceland in 2018 and Paraguay in the first World Cup in 1930.

The team, coached by Bubista since 2020, stunned stronger African rivals and won its qualifying group ahead of Cameroon. Bubista, a former player with just two appearances in Spain’s second division in the 1990s, has transformed the national side, posting a 48 percent win rate with 31 victories in 64 matches.

A key part of the strategy was recruiting players from Europe with Cape Verdean roots, including footballers born or raised in the Netherlands, Portugal, France, England and the United States. Players familiar in Israel include Gilson and Heriberto Tavares, who played for Beitar Jerusalem and Maccabi Netanya in qualification, Helio Varela of Maccabi Tel Aviv, and Carlos Fonseca, a former Hapoel Be'er Sheva defender who made 22 appearances for the national team until 2022.

One of the most striking cases was Dublin-born Roberto Lopes, whose mother is Irish and father is from Cape Verde. He said Bubista contacted him on LinkedIn six years ago, first in Portuguese, and he ignored the message for nine months because he thought it was spam. After a second approach and help from Google Translate, he realized it was a genuine invitation to represent Cape Verde, and now has 39 caps. After Spain, Cape Verde will face Uruguay, and the team is seen as one of the weakest in the tournament, hoping mainly to avoid embarrassment.