When Cabo Verde made its debut at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, nobody could have predicted they would quickly become one of the tournament’s darlings.
Cabo Verde, an island nation off the western coast of Africa, gained independence from Portugal in 1975. It has a lean population, with just about 561,000 people residing in the country. Much of its population and their descendants, estimated at over 1 million people, reside in the diaspora. This past week, Cabo Verde made a stunning entry at the World Cup after managing to earn a 0-0 draw against its first opponent and tournament favorites, Spain. The team has been receiving immense attention, with goalkeeper Vozinha garnering more than 14 million followers, up from 50,000 on his Instagram after the game with Spain.
“We are extremely proud to see our small archipelago represented as it should be at the greatest sporting competition on earth,” Katia, a 26-year-old Cape Verdean, tells OkayAfrica.
“It means that the efforts of the Cape Verdean Football Federation have paid off. Fifteen years ago, everyone was wondering whether Cape Verde even had a football team. Today, our team is competing in the World Cup in the United States and is gradually establishing itself as a significant nation in African football.”
A spirited journey
Cabo Verde went into the final game day of the African World Cup qualifiers two points ahead of continental giants Cameroon — just one win away from football’s biggest stage. They could have had the ticket a game earlier, but a 3-3 draw against Libya forced them to wait. As it turned out, the gods of football wanted them to do it on home soil. And so it was that on October 13, 2025, at the 15,000-capacity Estádio Nacional de Cabo Verde stadium in Praia, the Blue Sharks sealed their spot at the World Cup with a 3 - 0 win over Eswatini.
“It means the world,” defender Steven Moreira told Al Jazeera. “Just because of us, everyone is happy. And now all the world will know Cabo Verde. You can travel over there [and] see how beautiful this place is,” he adds. When the Blue Sharks qualified, Cabo Verde became the smallest nation (by land area), and the second smallest (by population), to qualify for a World Cup, behind Iceland's 2018 appearance in Russia. That record was short-lived, however, as Curaçao, a nation of fewer than 200,000 people and about nine times smaller than Cabo Verde, displaced them both the following month.
“For Cape Verdeans, qualifying for the World Cup is just [like winning] the World Cup. Just [the] qualification itself. It means everything,” Boston resident Antonio Alves, who traveled to the islands for the final game against Eswatini, told The Boston Globe.
In the islands of Cabo Verde, football is a special sport. In a short documentary on The Boston Globe, Massachusetts state senator Liz Miranda, whose mother was born in Cabo Verde, recalls her uncle explaining to her how important the sport is in the country; and for her, the love for football, among other things, represents her Cape Verdean identity.
“We’ve seen Cabo Verdeans excel in other sports recently but, for football, I think it’s more special,” photographer Cristiano Barbosa told FIFA ahead of the game against Eswatini. “And for kids that are used to playing football ever since they started walking – we play with everything we find on the street and at school – so for them to see the national team on television, playing the World Cup, it’s something that I’m sure they feel (is) really special,” he added.
Tapping into the diaspora
While Cabo Verde played its first-ever national team game in 1978, its football federation was formed in 1982, and it became a FIFA member in 1986. The first time the country tried to qualify for the FIFA World Cup was in 2000, ahead of the 2002 Korea-Japan tournament, but they were eliminated by Algeria in the first round. Fast-forward 13 years, months after reaching the quarterfinal of their debut Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) appearance, it felt like the goal of reaching the biggest stage was within reach. They had defeated continental heavyweights Tunisia by two goals to make it to the African playoff round. Unfortunately, the team was disqualified for fielding an ineligible player, and a 3 - 0 loss was handed to them.
Since that first attempt, Cabo Verde has been deliberate about building a football system capable of competing with the best on the continent and the rest of the world. Beyond FIFA funding that has boosted sporting infrastructure, and initiatives like the FIFA Series that have given them more exposure against other national teams, the team has also tapped into one of its greatest resources: its diaspora. The move to leverage on diaspora talents began around 2002, after Cláudio Zélito da Fonseca Fernandes Aguiar, better known as Lito, a forward whose family emigrated to Portugal when he was young, chose to represent his home country.
Inácio Carvalho, a VP at Cabo Verde Football Federation, told The Guardian that Lito was one of the first foreign‑developed players to choose to represent Cabo Verde. “We relied on him to help convince other Portugal‑based players of Cape Verdean descent to join the national team,” Carvalho said.
As the years went by, Cabo Verde continued to build their network of diaspora talents - from Portugal to France to the Netherlands, and beyond. In 2019, Ireland-born defender Roberto Lopes was contacted on LinkedIn by then-coach Rui Águas. Even after Lopes ignored the message - as it was in Portuguese and he thought it was spam - Águas sent a follow-up nine months later, this time, in English. When Lopes translated the initial text, it said: “We're looking at getting new players into the Cape Verde squad and would you be interested in declaring for Cape Verde?” Lopes told the BBC that he was “absolutely buzzing” with the news. “I was like, 'Yep, 100% I'd love to be a part of the squad.'"
A national duty
For most of these players, representing Cabo Verde is an honor and a duty. Netherlands-born Dailon Livramento, a decisive player in the qualifying campaign, who also opened the scoring in the Eswatini game, said: “Being able to repay the efforts of our grandparents and parents, who emigrated to give us a better future, sometimes even working two jobs at the same time, is the least we can do.”
But beyond the players on the field, support from Cabo Verdeans across the world has also helped push the Blue Sharks to this moment. “It says a lot about where we are now. It’s a lot different [from] when I played. We didn’t have the best resources as far as hotels, fields to train, plane tickets… The support that people from outside the country are showing is tremendous,” former Cabo Verde international Anselmo “Jair” Ribeiro told The Boston Globe. Ribeiro himself, together with some friends, also got buses to take people to the stadium. “We want a full stadium. We want the players to feel their support,” he stated. Alves, his wife, and their circle also worked with some schools in Cabo Verde to get kids to see the game.
With a team of players from different parts of the world, team cohesion was of utmost importance to head coach Pedro Leitão Brito, also known as Bubista. “Unity among people with different mindsets and ways of life can only be achieved by respecting the uniqueness of each player,” he told The Guardian.
For Bubista, a former Cabo Verde international and captain for 11 years, unity also means keeping the players rooted in their shared identity. “[Creole] is the official language of the national team. Some players used to speak only English, but now they’ve learned Creole. Sometimes the guys try to speak other languages among themselves, but I don’t allow it, to keep our Cape Verdean identity intact.”
Cabo Verde opened their World Cup campaign with a strong statement, echoing what Bubista said before the first game. “When we qualified, I said that we wanted to play the best teams at the World Cup, and we were lucky to get Spain, who are [near the] top of the FIFA ranking; Uruguay, who’ve been world champions twice; and former Asian Cup winners Saudi Arabia,” Bubista told FIFA last month. “We feel very relaxed. There’s no fear. We’re not scared of anything.”
Next up for the Blue Sharks is a clash with Uruguay in Miami Stadium at 6:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 21, 2026.
