Roberto Lopes, 33, made his international debut for Cape Verde in 2019 after a delayed recruitment process that began with a LinkedIn message in Portuguese which he initially ignored, thinking it was spam [1, 2]. Nine months later, Lopes received a follow-up LinkedIn message in English prompting him to consider declaring for Cape Verde, which led him to translate the original message and accept the offer [1, 2].

"Nine months later they messaged me back in English asking if I had thought about the proposal, and it was only then that I did what I should have done originally and Google-translated the original message asking if I would be interested in declaring for Cape Verde," Lopes recalled [1].

"It was a weird angle to come at (via LinkedIn); it was explained to me afterwards that they had difficulty contacting my club, but when I saw the opportunity was there in front of me, I was 100% behind it from the minute one, and we got working on getting all the necessary documentation across," he added [1].

Lopes, nicknamed 'Pico', has spent his club career entirely in the League of Ireland with Bohemian FC and Shamrock Rovers [1, 2]. After joining the Cape Verde national team, he quickly became a key central defender. He debuted in a 2-0 win over Togo in 2019 and was part of the squad that finished top of their group ahead of Egypt at the 2023 African Cup of Nations tournament [1, 2].

"When I came into the squad in 2019, I felt there was a great group of players there, the goal at the time was to get to the AFCON (African Cup of Nations), which we did, and we were mixing with some of the best teams in Africa," Lopes said [1].

"Through that, we gained a lot of confidence within our group and some more lads with dual nationality declared, and it just kind of bolstered our squad as well," he added [1].

Cape Verde secured their first-ever World Cup berth in October by beating Eswatini 3-0, with Lopes playing a key defensive role [1, 2]. They will open their 2026 World Cup campaign against Spain, with reports on Lopes’s unusual recruitment story emerging on June 13, 2026, just before the group stage match [1, 2].