Summer madness has descended on League of Ireland supporters of every hue who this weekend find themselves in the unusual and borderline hallucinatory position of cheering on a Shamrock Rovers player. Even more surreally, it is a Shamrock Rovers player lighting up the World Cup rather than Ballybofey or Dalymount on a dank Monday in February. Short of airborne barnyard animals appearing in the sky over Turner’s Cross or The Showgrounds, it is as unlikely a turn of events as you can imagine.That player is, of course, Roberto “Pico” Lopes, the stalwart Shamrock centre back who, in the space of a month, has gone from lining out at the south Dublin County Council Lego Wonderland that is Tallaght Stadium to helping tiny Cape Verde keep the mighty Spain at bay. And his adventures may only have started. Depending on results this weekend, he may soon potentially be marking GOAT almighty Lionel Messi in a knockout tie against Argentina. Stranger things have happened in Irish soccer – remember that time Bohemian FC won a trophy? – but not many.Squaring up to Messi in the World Cup is as big as it gets in global sport. Judging by Cape Verde’s performances so far, it is – moreover – by no means a given that the three-time Champions League winner would wipe the floor with Lopes. The caveat is that, for Messi v Lopes to become a reality, Cape Verde will first have to defeat Saudi Arabia at 1am Irish time on Saturday. But considering that they’ve ground out draws against the almighty Spain and two-time World Cup winners Uruguay, such a result is hardly unthinkable.Lopes is, in the first instance, representing Cape Verde, his father’s home and the country that recruited him to play for its national side after it became clear he had no future with Ireland – despite having lined out for some of the country’s biggest clubs and representing Ireland at under-19s.But he is also waving a flag for the League of Ireland, having made history as the first player from the league to grace a World Cup (former LOI players have appeared in the tournament – he is the first to do so while actively lining out for a LOI team). Crumlin-born Lopes has been very clear that he sees himself as representing the League – our league, the competition that has, for decades, been dismissed, scoffed at, derided and ignored by too many Irish people. Often, the very same Irish people who will declare themselves obsessed with soccer and then start banging on about Liverpool, Manchester United and Leeds.“I’m immensely proud: we have some great players in our league, and to represent the League of Ireland is huge for me,” he said after the draw with Spain. “I have played my whole career there. I started out part-time, then I became full-time. I was chatting to the lads from Shamrock Rovers: a lot of them went out to watch the game and to see the people you lock heads with every day, that really push you every day and support you, means the most. They’re so happy, they’re so happy, they’re so proud. It feels a bit weird.”It feels weird for us too. The last time I saw Lopes play in the flesh, he was holding the fort for Shamrock Rovers against Cork City in the FAI Cup Final. Seven months later, his success at the World Cup is a victory for every League of Ireland supporter who has driven through the night to see their team play, huddled in the away end during a 3-0 battering or got in a row with a barman when they refused to turn the channel to a LOI team in Europe and instead insisted on showing Sheffield United v Leicester on Sky (no place in this universe is more British than a Dublin pub when there’s English soccer on the telly).[ ‘The magic continues’ – supporters of Cape Verde’s Pico Lopes celebrate World Cup odysseyOpens in new window ]Lopes at the World Cup isn’t just about sport. It shows how colonialism has shaped so many aspects of the modern world. Cape Verde is a former Portuguese colony and has only been able to punch above its weight by calling on its huge diaspora. Six of the squad come from Rotterdam’s Delfshaven neighbourhood. But in Ireland, sport has been hobbled by a different sort of colonisation. The internal kind that tells us nothing Irish can ever be as good as something British, as manifested in the tragic obsession with English soccer. Yes, yes – Premier League Paddies will point out that the EPL has a worldwide fan base. But what they will gloss over is that almost every hotbed of Premier League support across the world is likewise a former colony: cultural cringe and supporting the English Premier League go together like Harry Kane and scuffed shots at the edge of the Ghana box. The point is that the worst sort of colonialism is the one that gets inside your head – an affliction from which too many Irish people, with their “we beat you at the weekend” Liverpool v Man United banter, suffer. How many Austrians support (far superior) German Bundesliga teams, do you think? None – they have too much respect for themselves and for where they come from. The success of Pico Lopes at the World Cup shows there is a different way. That players who live in Ireland and who we can go and watch on a weekly basis can perform at the very highest level. For that reason, Lopes going above and beyond at the World Cup isn’t just a good news story. For many League of Ireland fans, it is our Italia 90 moment – our summer party, our time in the sun. And with Cape Verde possibly facing Messi’s Argentina, there is every chance that the best is yet to come.