Shamrock Rovers defender Pico Lopes has spoke of the sense of pride after his national team Cape Verde qualified for the World Cup for the first time.
The African country became the second-smallest nation to reach the World Cup, and is an archipelago of 10 islands in the Atlantic Ocean, with a population of just under 525,000.
Dublin-born Lopes qualifies to play for Cape Verde through his father and started the game against Eswatini, where they won 3-0 to finish ahead of Cameroon in the qualifying group.
“It’s a surreal feeling, the overwhelming relief at the end of the game, the realisation that we did it, we’re going to the World Cup, I’m overjoyed at the moment,” Lopes said.
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“Since I’ve been involved, it’s been a growing feeling in this group, we can achieve it and to put this team in the biggest sporting event on that stage, it just gives us an immense sense of pride.
“We are there on merit, we were in a tough group and we came out on top.”
Lopes’ father and father-in-law travelled to the game, which gave the centre-back “extra motivation”.
“He’s the reason I’m playing for the Cape Verde national team, to represent him and my family on the biggest stage in football, it’s amazing. I hope he’s very proud of what we achieved.”
Lopes almost missed the original call-up for Cape Verde as he ignored a message on LinkedIn for nine months as he did not understand Portuguese.
“Thankfully they wrote back in English and I did what I should have done the first time, translated the first message and apologised profusely and thankfully they waited for me, now I’m part of history,” he said.
For now, his attention turns to more important matters, with his wife expecting their first child.
“It could be any time now. I enjoyed the celebration after the game, but I am really looking forward to getting home and hopefully be there [for my wife].”
