Community turns out for Pico ahead of World Cup

With Irish World Cup hopes dashed in late March in Prague, Dubliners may feel tempted to sit out this year’s tournament.

The prospect of a tournament being played in a hostile United States is also a factor in people not joining in on the typical World Cup excitement, but Dubliners have a team they can cheer for after all.

The African island nation of Cape Verde.

With a population of just over 500,000, the World Cup marks a debut outing for the underdogs.

Drawn in the same group as tournament favourites Spain, two-time winners Uruguay and Saudi Arabia, Cape Verde aren’t fancied to go far in the tournament; but that doesn’t mean that Dubliners couldn’t send one of their own off in style.

Roberto “Pico” Lopes is an Irish footballing institution on the Southside alike after helping Shamrock Rovers win five league titles.

Lopes is one of the few to have played for both Northside and Southside teams, with Lopes lining out for Bohemians nearly 200 times in all competitions, and has just hit the 350 mark for Shamrock Rovers.

The five-time League of Ireland winner was famously contacted by the manager of the Cape Verde football team on LinkedIn, asking if he would consider lining out for the nation.

Born to a father from Cape Verde, Pico made his debut for the nation in 2019 and has gone on to win 44 caps for the national team.

Pico will be the only Irish-born player to play at this year’s World Cup.

Prior to jetting out to Tampa, Florida for the World Cup, Pico’s neighbours saw the football star off in style.

Neighbour Sheena Heavey helped organise a surprise send-off for Lopes in May, with the going away party held at his parents house in Crumlin.

Heavey told us that the going away party was a “complete surprise” to Lopes, and neighbours conspired for weeks to organise the party.

The party received national and international coverage – RTÉ and Reuters picked the story up – and she said she was “still buzzing” from the story taking on a life of its own.

Neighbours, former team-mates and family members were on hand to wish Pico good luck in his World Cup journey.

Heavey said that she hoped to gather the community to watch Pico and his Cape Verde teammates in action.

She said that as soon as Cape Verde secured their qualification last October, she and her neighbours knew they wanted to celebrate Pico’s success.

For readers who want to cheer on Pico and Cape Verde, the time difference is relatively easy for Irish audiences.

Cape Verde’s first game, against tournament favourites Spain, will take place on June 15 with a 5 pm Monday evening kick-off time.

Their second game, against 1930 and 1950 winners Uruguay, will take place at 11 pm on the evening of June 11 (a Sunday evening, so get the annual leave requests in now!).

Their third, and likely final game, against Saudi Arabia, will take place in the early hours of Saturday, June 27, with a 1 am kick-off pencilled in.