A hometown victory for Cabo Verde’s national football team has secured the country its first ticket to the World Cup, reports the BBC.
The tiny African archipelago made history Monday, as its Blue Sharks beat Eswatini 3-0 to seal a spot at the 2026 World Cup. As football fans poured out of the 15,000-seat Estadio Nacional in Praia, the streets erupted in a carnival-like atmosphere.
A scoreless first half against Eswatini had nerves high, only for forward Dailon Livramento to score minutes into the second half, followed by goals from Willy Semedo and veteran defender Ianique dos Santos Tavares, commonly known as Stopira.
A riotous chorus of honking horns, firecrackers, reggae and local funaná music filled the air as Cabo Verde celebrated its landmark World Cup qualification more than two decades after the first attempt with the 2002 World Cup. It was “an incredible moment,” one fan told AFP near the stadium. “I don’t have words.”
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Blue Sharks coach Pedro Leitão ‘Bubista’ Brito told the press that “giving this happiness to these people is enormous,” adding that “it’s a victory for all the Cabo Verdean people.”
Cabo Verde joins Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria and Ghana in securing one of Africa’s qualifying spots in next year’s finals, jointly hosted by the US, Mexico and Canada. The continent now has a guaranteed nine slots in the expanded 48-team World Cup, up from five at Qatar 2022. Europe, for comparison, has 10 fewer countries and seven more slots.
Only Stopira hails from Cabo Verde originally, with players like Livramento (Netherlands), Semedo (France) and Pico (Ireland) called up as part of a concerted effort by local footballing authorities to recruit players of Cabo Verdean descent from around the world.
“We’re all over the world,” Pico, whose father left the archipelago as a teenager, told the BBC’s Destination New Jersey podcast. “It’s great what we can achieve when we’re together.”
