Nine months later, Aguas followed up—this time in English—asking if Lopes had seen his earlier message.
“I was absolutely buzzing with that. I was like, ‘Yep, 100% I’d love to be a part of the squad’.”
Just three weeks later, after scrambling to get documents from his father like a birth certificate and passport, Lopes was on a plane to make his international debut against Togo.
Last week, the nation made its first-ever appearance at the tournament and opened with a scoreless draw against Spain—a remarkable result given the matchup featured the world’s No. 3-ranked team against No. 64. For Lopes, the opportunity has been hard to believe.
“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,” Lopes said.
“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.”
But at the time, there was no guarantee the gamble would pay off.
Lopes initially viewed it as a short-term experiment—maybe two years—but what followed has stretched far beyond that horizon: “I would say we’ve achieved what we wanted to achieve, but we still want more as well.”
That tension between risk and reward is hardly unique to soccer. Much like entrepreneurs leaving stable jobs to launch startups or professionals betting on an unconventional opportunity, elite athletes often make career-defining decisions without knowing how they’ll end. For some, the leap never lands. For others, it changes everything.
But despite their individual backgrounds, the one thing pulling each of the athletes together has been their willingness risks—even when the result is entirely unknown.
Cape Verde will next take on Uruguay on June 21 and Saudi Arabia on June 26.
