Cape Verde are unbeaten at the World Cup. Three draws against Spain, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia. And at the centre of it all is a Crumlin-born Shamrock Rovers captain who, not long ago, was getting his career-changing message on LinkedIn.
Pico Lopes faces Argentina and Lionel Messi in Miami on Friday night — 11pm Irish time — and whatever happens, former Republic of Ireland international Keith Treacy thinks the League of Ireland has already won something.
"He's born and bred and made in the League of Ireland," Treacy said on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast. "Any Cape Verde fans, any neutral watching it would be thinking, 'Where's your man Pico playing? The League of Ireland must be good if he's playing in it.'"
A walking advertisement for domestic football
That's the part that matters beyond the result on Friday. Every time Pico Lopes wins a header, makes a tackle, or waves an Irish flag pitchside after a draw with Spain, he's doing something no marketing campaign could manufacture. The LOI gets a serious credibility boost just by association.
Treacy didn't hold back on the personal side of it either. "He seems to be rivaling Kevin Kilbane for one of the nicest men in football. Nobody has a bad word to say about him at all." In a sport where reputations get complicated fast, that's a rare thing.
The Argentina game is a long shot — Cape Verde's odds of causing an upset against the world champions are long for a reason. But the story has already been written. An unbeaten group stage record. A goal scored. History made.
The LinkedIn call that started it all
One of the better moments of this World Cup came off the pitch entirely. RTÉ analyst Alan Cawley explained how, during the post-match coverage of the Cape Verde-Saudi draw, presenter Stephen Bradley — Pico's club manager at Shamrock Rovers — jokingly tried to ring him live on air. It rang out. Then, on air, the phone lit up on the desk. Pico was calling back.
"It was a lovely moment," Cawley said. Unplanned, genuine, and exactly the kind of thing that travels on social media and lands with people who'd never watched a League of Ireland match in their lives.
Before that LinkedIn message changed his career, Pico was, by Treacy's account, probably resigned to seeing out his playing days in domestic Irish football. Now he's preparing to face Messi. The League of Ireland made him. Friday night, the world is watching.
