Dublin-born Cape Verde star recruited on LinkedIn gets World Cup chance

He was recruited on social media to play for a tiny island nation 3,000 miles from where he was born, and now a former Dublin bank worker looks set to face Spain at the World Cup.

Roberto Lopes' story sounds so far fetched even Hollywood scriptwriters might consider it implausible.

"I was not enjoying the work," says the 33-year-old about his desk job as he reflects on a wild, inspirational journey, from being a white-collar worker in the Republic of Ireland to playing for Cape Verde at their first World Cup.

The defender, nicknamed 'Pico', was a newly qualified mortgage adviser 10 years ago, playing part-time for Bohemians in the League of Ireland.

Then, in 2017, Dublin rivals Shamrock Rovers offered Lopes a chance to give up his day job and throw himself into a full-time football career.

He has not looked back.

Lopes is expected to start for minnows Cape Verde when they face 2010 world champions Spain on Monday in Group H in Atlanta (17:00 BST kick-off).

The former Republic of Ireland Under-19 player's first appearances for the Blue Sharks came in 2019.

Rui Aguas, the team's coach at the time, made contact via business network LinkedIn when he discovered Lopes' father, Carlos, was from Cape Verde - a country made up of 10 islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Africa.

Former Benfica striker Aguas' original message was written in Portuguese and Lopes, who still plays for Shamrock Rovers, unintentionally blanked him.

"I thought it was a spam message and I took no notice of it," he tells BBC Sport. "And then about nine months later, he messaged me back, saying, 'Hi Roberto, have you had a chance to consider what I said to you?'.

"I felt so rude for not having replied to him months earlier.

"I copied the message and put it into Google Translate and it basically said, 'We're looking at getting new players into the Cape Verde squad and would you be interested in declaring for Cape Verde?'.

"I was absolutely buzzing with that. I was like, 'Yep, 100% I'd love to be a part of the squad'."

It has been a whirlwind few months for Lopes, a regular starter for the Blue Sharks over the past seven years.

Days after helping Cape Verde qualify for the World Cup, he became a father for the first time after his wife, Leah, gave birth to son Diego.

"From when I was a young child, and I imagine every aspiring footballer when they were young, they wanted to play at the highest level possible and, for me, it doesn't go any further than the World Cup," adds Lopes.

"Being able to represent my family playing for the national team and being able to put our family name out there at one of the biggest sporting events in the world fills me with great pride."

-BBC