Introduction
One of the highlights of this year's World Cup has been the performance of its second smallest nation finalist, little Cape Verde.
Everybody now knows that it is a former colony of Portugal, has a population of 500,000, it is an archipelago of 10 islands, lying off the west coast of Senegal. A couple of important facts come to mind.
One is that I've not written about any sporting topic for two years; the other is the key point that Cape Verde has now inherited and bettered Northern Ireland's unique World Cup record with its very own claim to fame as the smallest ever footballing nation to qualify for the World Cup's knock-out stages.
Reminiscences of the 1958 tournament
Our record dates back to 1958, arguably the era of Northern Ireland's best ever team, even taking account of our subsequent qualifications for the 1982 (when we beat hosts Spain 1-0) and 1986 finals (with our legendary goalkeeper Pat Jennings playing his final internationals aged 40). How sport has the power to unite people.
Several aspects of the 1958 team's achievement flood back from my memory, without resorting to research of that era, despite its being 68 years distant. They include:-
- That was our best team ever in the World Cup as we won our way through to the knock-out stage as one of the best eight teams. France beat us 4-0 in the quarter-final.
- France then lost in the semi-finals to eventual winners Brazil whose team included a precocious teenager nicknamed Pele;
- Brazil won that year's final beating host nation Sweden 5-2 in Stockholm, a city which in 1971 provided me with my first post-graduation job working in Stockholms Enskilda Banken headquarters;
- The nine year old me was delighted to watch the football on television at home in Omagh as Newry-born Peter McParland, our Aston Villa-based centre forward, netted 5 goals in the 1958 games;
- Our team was captained by the great Tottenham Hotspur right half, Belfast-born Danny Blanchflower. The squad included other star players such as Manchester United's Tobermore-born Harry Gregg in goals;
- Blanchflower went on in 1960 to captain Spurs as the first ever team in England to win both the League and FA Cup titles, an achievement called “the double,” the descriptive still used to this day;
- Harry Gregg was one of the heroes of the Manchester Utd Munich air crash that had happened in February 1958. The disaster cost twenty-three lives, including 8 of the club's footballers;
- Another Manchester Utd player from Northern Ireland involved in the Munich air crash was captain Danny’s brother, Jackie Blanchflower. His injuries sustained in the crash ended his playing career for club and country;
- Billy Bingham (Club Sunderland) and Jimmy McIlroy (Burnley) both born in Belfast along with Coleraine-born Bertie Peacock (Celtic) were other notable playing members of that infamous Northern Ireland 1958 team;
- Peter Doherty from Magherafelt, originally a Glentoran player, and who had helped his subsequent club Manchester City to win their ever first league title in 1936 scoring 30 goals, was manager of that illustrious World Cup squad. In recognition of his achievements, he was posthumously inducted into the Northern Ireland Hall of Fame (1) in 2020.
Cape Verde 2026
Having had the privilege to holiday in Cape Verde just over five years ago, I can vouch for the beauty of its largest island Sal, not to mention the dazzling talent of its contemporary musicians. Definitely a place worth visiting.
One essential appeal for inhabitants of this island, Ireland, emanating from Cape Verde's participation in the 2026 World Cup has been the team's inclusion of the Dublin-born Pico Lopes. Following an international trawl by the archipelago's football authority, this captain of the League of Ireland stalwarts, the Dublin-based club Shamrock Rovers, emerged as an eligible player. His father was born in Cape Verde. Following discussions and trials, he has become a central part of the team, becoming a fixture as one of the team's 2 centre backs. He started, participated with skilful aplomb and finished every game he played in the 2026 competition.
In the group stages Cape Verde were drawn in a group randomly drawn from four different continents, to play against Spain, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia. The team emerged unbeaten with three draws, finishing second in the group which, crucially, won them automatic qualification for the first knock-out round comprising 32 teams
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Drawing with Spain was notable since they are ranked number three in the FIFA world rankings; drawing with Uruguay was notable as the South Americans have won the World Cup twice in the past. The draw in their final group match with the Saudis clinched Cape Verde's automatic qualification, without having to endure the "lottery" of awaiting the outcome of determining the best of those third placed nations. One imagines that the good people of Cape Verde must have become extremely excited with the gradual unravelling of such an unpredicted success story.
To complicate matters further, if that were possible, the draw for the knock-out round could not have been more daunting for Cape Verde. That was because they were drawn to face the country ranked as world number two, Argentina also the winners of the 2022 tournament.
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| On completion of the Group stages, Pico's mother (centre) returned to Dublin family and bring them all to the Argentina game |
The match was televised here late at night, kick-off at 11 pm. Argentina were, predictably, hot favourites. For that reason nobody was surprised when their talisman and "best player in the world" Lionel Messi scored with sublime skill to give the odds-on favourites a first half lead. Team Cape Verde didn't panic, sticking to their methodical and cautious strategy. In the second half, they scored an equaliser. All square at 90 minutes meant that extra time of two 15 minute halfs beckoned.
What had always been a gripping encounter where the underdogs refused to give up became more and more exciting in the extra time. Argentina, in line with pundits' expectations soon made it 2-1; what the pundits didn't expect next actually happened - Cape Verde equalised for the second time, in great style with one of the best strikes of the whole tournament. With the atmosphere approaching bursting point, Argentina's third (and winning) goal came from a deflection off an African head with about nine minutes left on the clock.
One of the best matches of the 2026 World Cup and the number 2 seeds struggling to beat the 64th ranked team. Interestingly, the BBC report awarded the player of the game to Cape Verde's goalkeeper, Vozinha, making 8 saves, and still playing (as did Pat Jennings in 1986) at the age of 40. The report also gave every one of the losing team more points for performance than any of those in the winning team. The ultimate in sporting suspense and entertainment.
A link to a BBC report one day later which emphatically eulogises the scale of Cape Verde's achievements is also attached (3).
2026 WC Players with Irish connections
Pico Lopes is not alone as a central World Cup 2026 character with Irish connections in the evolving drama. Two other examples from South America come to mind.
Paraguay's goalkeeper is Orlando Gill, not a Hispanic surname, deriving from the Irish Gaelic surname MacGiolla meaning son of a servant. He and his performances merit special mention (4). His heroics "between the sticks" in his nation's penalty shoot out against Germany ensured a 4-3 stage victory for Paraguay to reach the round of 16. It also delivered an unexpected and early exit for Germany in the first knock-out round. Remember that Germany have previously won the World Cup no less than four times (1954, 1974, 1990 and most recently in 2014).
The journalist's report refers to the arrival from Ireland of John Thomas McGill and his brother in South America in the nineteenth century. The Irish Mc was later dropped when prefixes on foreign surnames were banned in Paraguay.
The second example is one of Messi's colleagues in Argentina's midfield. He is the Liverpool player Alexis McAllister, also not a Hispanic surname. Reports have revealed that Alexis has family ties to Donabate in Co Dublin (5); others on another occasion have referred his possible connections to County Antrim where the McAllister surname is fairly prevalent.
As an alternative to thinking about far-away footballers with Irish ties, it might be easier to mention professionals representing our nearest neighbour, England, especially those involving less ancestry. Immediate examples might reference top quality internationals like Declan Rice, Harry Kane, Nico O'Reilly, maybe others. Prospects and results from such speculations, however, may appear either fruitless or pointless. So, who knows; who even cares?
Changing tack somewhat, one wonders about our island's own footballing fortunes. Ireland has separate governing bodies for its pair of international teams. Neither makes mention of words like Northern or Republic. One has a population almost 4 times that of Cape Verde; the other's is about 10 times bigger.
The titular names of both governing bodies are remarkably similar. One is the IFA, Irish Football Association (6), responsible for Northern Ireland; the other is the FAI, the Football Association of Ireland (7), responsible for the Republic of Ireland. Does that double our chances of having a team in the World Cup?
Are there any lessons for us to learn from the ability and success of Cape Verde in 2026? That neither of our national teams has been able to qualify for the 2026 tournament being held next door, a short hike across the Atlantic does not project a glowing advertisement for either the IFA or the FAI.
So, would a question about the future pooling of resources to improve results and maybe to build a stronger team help resolve any quandry? Or even, ultimately perhaps, to help restore our sporting pride and improve community cohesion here?
© Michael McSorley 2026
References
1. NI Hall of Fame:Peter Doherty https://share.google/g5TROtXZmn53M4VIW
2. BBC Sport Charlotte Coates 3 July 2026 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/cz75y0v8qrjt
3. BBC Sport Charlotte Coates & Elizabeth Conway 4 July 2026 "Farewell Cape Verde -the underdogs the WC will never forget"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cqj1pd8lqw9o
4. "Paraguay Goalkeeper is latest WC Hero Who Can Trace Roots to Ireland" by Eoin Harrington June 30 2026 https://www.balls.ie/football/paraguay-germany-orlando-gill-irish-658634fbclid=IwdGRjcASyFURleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeGF7Mo4voA8a6Ix68_jaEwkcjPWCFitHvOw9lI7cVFEEpiil1gujDlDkyCpg_aem_63ysMk0IxZP7klfr5atoQw
5. "Alexis MacAllister Can Trace his Irish ncestry to a cottage in Donabate" by Eoin Harrington June 8 2023 https://www.balls.ie/football/alexis-mac-allister-irish-argentina-535133
6. www.irishfa.com
7. www.fai.ie
