Read 3 minutesUpdated: 5 July 2026 11:34 PM IST
Arriving in the capital city of Praia, thousands of people lined the bumpy streets of Cape Verde to welcome their titans from the World Cup. The Blue Sharks took flight after losing 2-3 to mighty Argentina on Sunday.
“It’s a great moment for us to be here with our people,” Wonderwall goalkeeper Wozinha, wearing cool Gucci big-glares, told the BBC as flags with blue and red stripes waved everywhere. “We wanted something bigger but we didn’t go to the next level. Now we just enjoy the moment and celebrate with our people,” he added.
They returned in white t-shirts emblazoned with Cabo Verde in bold letters. Cape Verde held Spain and Uruguay to a draw. The homecoming also coincided with their 51st Independence Day, when they were freed from Portugal.
The Cape Verde team and coaching staff are back in Cape Verde. Look at the number of people waiting to welcome them home pic.twitter.com/fltaUXibM1
— Cleverlydey 💐 (@Cleverlydey4u) 5 July 2026
Ranked 67th, he was widely praised for his clean defending and strong heart in the Argentina match, scoring twice.
Bubista says, “We showed that we may be a small country, but we can play against the best in the world. It’s a source of pride. We made history.”
At the airport ground staff Nelson Mandela Priya International Airport was celebrated by kneeling and bowing to Vozinha & Co. A white long open trailer was reconstituted into a long moving stage tableaux of blue and red, and then without pause the team marched to the beat of the drum in the parade.
The legend Thierry Henry would say “Cabo Verde Obrigado. I don’t care about the result. The story was, is and always will be Cabo Verde.”
Cape Verde is made up of 10 islands off the African coast and impressed audiences for the first time during the Africa Cup of Nations. They don’t have a player in the top flight of any of the 5 Euro leagues and goalscorer Cabral played for the fifth division in the Bundesliga a couple of years ago.
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Wozinha is still looking for a club, although he could head west to Brazil, which is culturally a totem for Cape Verdeans. A postman, a footballer recruited by LinkedIn makes up a team that is defensively a dream – no dirty tackles, no attacking sloppiness like Paraguay – with Spain and Argentina at their best attacking. They also showed Uruguay, an often ugly team, emerging as a global favourite.
Wozinha spoke about how the world refused to take him seriously – a colleague brutally rejected by Benfica – early on. But after the opener with Spain, Cabo Verde became favorites – behind their chosen teams, of course. The draw earned them respect, but twice coming from behind to beat Dibu Martinez and putting Messi’s Argentina under the pump sent the world reeling.
It could be said that the third was an own goal for Argentina, as the defense didn’t pay off until the end. It was a team that left no football lover unimpressed and inspired.