Roberto Lopes: World Cup-bound Cape Verde defender relishing his week to remember

This week is set to be one that lives long in the memory of Shamrock Rovers defender Roberto Lopes, for both professional and personal reasons.

On Monday, the 33-year-old helped Cape Verde make history by qualifying for next year's World Cup, the second smallest nation ever to achieve that feat.

On Friday he hopes to help his club secure the League of Ireland title, while any day now his wife is expecting the couple's first child.

Born in Dublin to a Cape Verdean father and Irish mother, the centre-back had no thoughts of competing for Cape Verde until he was contacted by then-coach Rui Aguas via his LinkedIn profile.

After going through the necessary administrative stages, Lopes turned out for the small archipelago in the Africa Cup of Nations in 2022 but now has realised his childhood ambition of helping them reach the 2026 World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States next summer.

A 3-0 home win over Eswatini proved enough for the islanders to secure top spot in their qualifying group, ahead of African heavyweights Cameroon.

"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. It's the pinnacle of our sport," Lopes told BBC Sport.

"It doesn't feel real now. I hope it does in the next few days and I know it will come next June. I can't wait for that.

"I'm in a bit of a race now to get home, just to make sure I'm there for the arrival. There's no sign of the baby yet. I'm leaving the celebrations early to get home as quick as I can.

"So, yeah, hopefully all goes well. Hopefully, look, our child comes here safely and healthy, and, yeah, hopefully we can get the job done in the league this week as well."

Lopes' unorthodox route to playing international football has made his progress with his team-mates on the global stage all the sweeter.

"I feel so lucky, it was lucky that I got this opportunity to play for Cape Verde. I didn't imagine where it would take me. Six, seven years ago now and now we're going to a World Cup.

"I started out nervous and just wanted to get to know as much as I could about Cape Verde as possible, so I really started to look into my heritage. learn the culture, learn the language as best as I could.

"Every time I got called up, I felt a little bit more Cape Verdean and I was always proud to stick on the jersey.

"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 and I hope it does likewise with my dad."

An archipelago of 10 islands in the Atlantic Ocean, with a population of just under 525,000 according to the latest figures from the World Bank, Cape Verde gained independence from Portugal in 1975 and first attempted to reach the 2002 World Cup hosted in Japan and South Korea.

The team have punched above their weight in the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in recent years, reaching the quarter-finals on debut in 2013 and again in 2023, and currently sit 70th in the world rankings.

Iceland, who featured at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, is the only country with a smaller population to qualify for the global showpiece.

"I think that straight after the game was just, relief. It was overwhelmed with relief," Lopes reflected after the win which clinched their passage on Monday.

"We're there on merit and it's just an amazing feeling. It's hard to put into words.

"We really felt we could achieve this and I think off the back of our performance in Afcon we gained some confidence, being able to mix it with some of the top teams in Africa.

"Going down to the last two games knowing it was in our hands was huge for us and in front of our people, our support, there was no better way to do it. We knew we had a chance of making history and we did it."

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