A Cape Verde soccer player got all the way to the World Cup thanks to a LinkedIn message

Roberto "Pico" Lopes, an Irish-born center back for Shamrock Rovers, joined the Cape Verde national soccer team in 2019 after receiving a LinkedIn message from head coach Rui Aguas. Aguas discovered Lopes' eligibility through his father's birthplace on the island nation and reached out via LinkedIn in Portuguese, which Lopes initially dismissed as spam. It took nine months and a follow-up message in English before Lopes realized the legitimacy of the offer after translating the initial message using Google Translate. Despite finding the recruitment method unusual for a soccer player, Lopes embraced the opportunity, stating he was "100% behind it from the minute one." The Cape Verde team, with Lopes, subsequently qualified for their first World Cup, though they missed the 2022 tournament in Qatar.