TL;DRRoberto ‘Pico’ Lopes, a Dublin-born Shamrock Rovers defender, was scouted for Cape Verde’s national team via a LinkedIn message he initially dismissed as a prank. He started in Cape Verde’s first ever World Cup match on 15 June 2026, a 0-0 draw with Spain in Atlanta. The story highlights how a platform built for white-collar networking produced football’s most unlikely international call-up.
Most LinkedIn messages lead to sales pitches, recruiter spam, or polite rejections. Roberto ‘Pico’ Lopes got a World Cup call-up.
The Dublin-born Shamrock Rovers defender made history on Sunday when he started for Cape Verde against Spain in the country’s first ever World Cup match, a Group H clash at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Cape Verde held the European champions to a stunning 0-0 draw.
The message he almost deleted
In 2019, former Cape Verde coach Rui Aguas discovered that Lopes had a Cape Verdean father and sent him a LinkedIn message in Portuguese. Lopes ignored it, assuming it was spam.
