Pico Lopes recalls memories of 2002 ahead of Cape Verde's World Cup adventure
Roberto Lopes of Shamrock Rovers, Cape Verde international and recipient of the Soccer Writers Ireland 2025 Men's Personality of the Year Award, pictured following the Final Draw for the FIFA World Cup 2026 at the 2025 Soccer Writers Ireland Awards at Clontarf Castle in Dublin. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Pico Lopes remembers the television being wheeled into the classroom so that he and his schoolmates could watch bits and bobs of World Cup 2002.
He was 10, and although flashes of France 98 still linger in the back of the Dubliner’s mind, Japan and Korea was the first World Cup that really landed with him.
It helped that Ireland were there, of course. Young or old, there was no escaping the seismic Saipan fallout. But the Brazilian team that won a record fifth crown - with his favourite players Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Rivaldo to the fore - is what stands out most.
A global stage for a select few, so it’s no wonder the Shamrock Rovers captain has to pause and exhale from time to time as the reality hits home that he won’t be sofa surfing with a remote in hand next month, but playing in the finals himself.
Representing his father Carlos’ homeland of Cape Verde, the Dubliner will be a key man for the tiny African island nation in their group campaign against Spain, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia.
“You do have moments where you pinch yourself,” said the 33-year-old who has amassed 44 caps for Cape Verde since belatedly answering a life-changing LinkedIn message that he initially ignored in 2018, as he thought it was spam.
“This is the stuff of dreams, honestly. I’ve said to myself that when I'm over there, I’ll enjoy every moment of it. Most young footballers growing up, they play World Cup on the street so it's a dream to actually play at one.”
Lopes often reflects on that initial contact from Cape Verde’s former manager Rui Aguas. The LinkedIn message was in Portuguese and he brushed it off, unaware it was offering him a route into international football. But Aguas was persistent and messaged him again months later, in English, and this time nothing was lost in translation.
Lopes said: “It’s probably the weirdest way to get called up. I’m down as one of the most difficult players to be declared for Cape Verde, because I was so hard to get in touch with.
“Even the paperwork going through, it was quite difficult. After my first (friendly) game in Marseilles, it was 12 months until the official paperwork went through, so it was a bit of a rigmarole as I had played three minutes for Ireland’s Under-19s and that caused a bit of a red tape.”
Seven years on, Lopes can hold his own conversing in ‘Creole’, the Afro-Portuguese language of Cape Verde. Self-taught, he even changed all the settings on his phone and Netflix account to Portuguese. Every little counts.
“Duolingo, Babel, every language app under the sun,” he said. “I got married in Lisbon and we went on our honeymoon in Cape Verde and had a few interactions with the locals. I was able to hold my own. My wife, Leah, was very impressed. I didn’t let on that it was broken words, because it sounded like I knew what I was talking about!
On Sunday, Lopes is heading back to Lisbon with Cape Verde for a World Cup training camp that also incorporates a friendly against Serbia a week later. From there, it’s onto Boston for a final warm-up game against opposition still to be confirmed.
Cape Verde will then be based in Tampa from June 8, ahead of their World Cup group games against Spain in Atlanta on June 15, Uruguay in Miami on June 21 and Saudi Arabia in Houston on June 27.
It’s quite the distance to cover by air, never mind in a camper van, but that’s how Leah, seven-month old son Diego and an array of family members are planning to take in the games.
“My Mam and Dad are going over, I’ve two brothers looking to go, my wife and her family and a couple of friends. Probably around 15 to 20 of really close people to me and I'm really grateful to them,” said Lopes.
“There's an RV being rented in Atlanta, to go on a little road trip around America to get to the games. To be able to say you did that for Diego and my family, it's amazing. It's a lot of driving but it's spread out and there will be two or three drivers."
The World Cup may be unchartered territory for the Crumlin man, but Lopes is well versed in tournament football having played in two Africa Cup of Nations with Cape Verde, and will draw on those experiences as the islanders look to cause upsets.
“They’re a really proud football nation,” he said. “The last two games in Cape Verde, the Government gave everyone a half day to go and there were 15,000 people at each game. The streets were lined and you couldn’t get out of the stadium for about two hours.
“There’s that underdog story. You’re out in the middle of the sea on your own. A small nation with big hearts. You want to prove yourself against the bigger nations in the world. There are a few Olympic athletes that have broken through with Cape Verde, but they’ve only been part of Fifa for 52 years and to qualify for a World Cup, there’s nothing bigger for them.”
Lopes insists Cape Verde - with a population of just 530,000 - can punch above their weight in America.
“We wanted a big name,” he explained. “You're going to the biggest stage, you want to be mixing it with some of the best players. When the draw was made, I saw Brazil, Argentina, France and England getting paired off and into their groups. You're like 'just give us someone', and then you get Spain. Amazing!
“You work so hard to get to this stage, to let it go would be terrible. We’ve got a difficult group, but they’re all difficult games at the World Cup. We must go over there and believe we can get out of the group, be competitive and then you never know.”
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