The strangest stories of the World Cup. LinkedIn turns an Irish employee into a Spanish dream killer

While the world was waiting for European champions Spain to appear in the 2026 World Cup, the Cape Verde national team stole the spotlight not only with their performance, but also with the story of their defense captain, who arrived at the World Cup with a recruitment letter.

The story of Dublin-born Roberto ‘Pico’ López, who became a symbol of his father’s country’s historic first participation after the tournament expanded to 48 teams.

The irony is that Cape Verde, the second smallest country in the tournament with a population of less than 600,000, reached the World Cup not only with local talent, but also with a clear strategy of looking for its people in the diaspora.

14 of the 25 players on the roster were born outside the archipelago, but one story sums up this entire project. an Irish defender who got his first international call-up via LinkedIn after he was working in a bank and thought his World Cup dream was over.