'We're Cape Verdens and Creole people': Pico Lopes embraces World Cup odyssey
Roberto 'Pico' Lopes will represent Cape Verde at the World Cup.
Born and raised in Crumlin and being part of Ireland youth squads, it was a long way to the World Cup with Cape Verde for Pico Lopes.
He’s there now, facing Lamine Yamal in Atlanta on Monday two days short of his 34th birthday.
The story of the Shamrock Rovers captain representing the homeland of his father Carlos is etched into lore at this stage – answering a LinkedIn invite he initially dismissed as a prank.
Seven years on from his international debut, with two African Nations Cup finals appearances behind him, the defender has the joint-favourites Spain awaiting in his opener.
His wife Leah, new-born son Diego and his in-laws have rented a campervan to accommodate their group phase, taking them afterwards to Miami for the meeting with Uruguay next Sunday and Houston when Saudi Arabia rock up on June 27.
Fusing a multinational and multicultural range of players has been a challenge to Pedro Leitão Brito but Lopes has led by example in learning the unified dialect.
Creole (Kriolu) is the national language and the true cornerstone of cultural identity, blending Portuguese and various West African languages.
“We're Cape Verdens and we're Creole people,” declared the centre-back over the weekend, before the squad left their base in Tampa.
“Creole is a constant learning and school day for me. Not a written language, a spoken language.
“It shows us how committed you are to the Cape Verde side; not just about football but the environment that you create.
“It's about representing Cape Verde on that world stage. We have players from Holland who speak Dutch together. We have a player from France who speaks French together. There's a bit of a mix in between.
“But it’s only when you're around the group that you start to pick up a few words. The more you use them, the more you cement them in your vocabulary.
“That's difficult but this is a great opportunity for me. We're already been together nearly three weeks.
“I find that my level has improved compared to where it was a few months ago.” Learning Portuguese has acted as a bridge to the native tongue.
“It definitely supplements me and I do my best to watch a lot of Portuguese shows on Netflix,” he added.
“I have a few apps as well that I can try and sharpen up my vocabulary with.
“We all try our best on the pitch and in the training ground and around the place. At meetings, we've been speaking Creole.” Starts to Cape Verde’s World Cup debut don’t come tougher than this but the beauty of expanding the tournament to 48 nations facilitates such opportunities.
“I am a dreamer,” Lopes said of his remarkable journey. “Watching World Cups as a kid, I always wondered if that would ever happen to me.
“I was realistic too. From working in the bank, and being part-time with Bohemians, I wasn’t at the international football level. This has coincided with my drive for better.
“Let's just call a spade a spade, Spain are one of the best teams in the world – which you’ve to respect – but you still must believe you can win.
“We've said from the get-go that we want to be competitive at this tournament.
“We can't just sort of pick and choose our games here because the tournament will pass you by. It’s great to be here and special when you think back on how it materialised.”
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