00:00It was risky because I was in a solid job and where our league was at that moment there wasn't
00:04much security in terms of like a career in football. Roberto Pico Lopez World Cup debut
00:10almost didn't happen. Back in 2018 Lopez was working at a bank when he received a LinkedIn
00:16message in Portuguese that he assumed was spam and ignored it. But the DM from Cape Verde national
00:22team coach Rui Aguas was actually an invitation to play for the team. Nine months later the coach
00:27sent a follow-up this time in English asking if Pico had seen his earlier message. When he spoke
00:33to me about his brand his ideas and what he had going forward I had to be a part of
00:37it and as I
00:38if it didn't work out I could always hold my head up and said I gave it the best I
00:42could. The idea
00:43that was was two years. After just three weeks and a scramble to compile documents from his Cape
00:48Verdean father Lopez was on a plane to make his international debut against Togo. Now Lopez is a
00:54fixture on the national team as Cape Verde becomes one of the World Cup's biggest surprise stories.
01:00It's hard to sum up in three words but absolutely incredible for me.
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