His club contract expired on June 1. He entered the World Cup unemployed.
Vozinha turned professional at 25, in 2007, the same year Lamine Yamal was born. Nineteen years followed across six countries: Cape Verde, Angola, Moldova, Portugal, Cyprus, Slovakia. One trophy the whole time, a Cypriot Cup in 2019. His last deal was with Chaves in Portugal's second division, and when it ran out on June 1 he announced his exit with nothing lined up.
Fourteen days later he faced Spain, ranked second in the world, in Cape Verde's first ever World Cup match. Spain took 27 shots. He saved all seven on target. 0-0. At 40 years and 12 days he became the oldest player ever to appear in a nation's World Cup debut. Only Shilton and Zoff have kept a clean sheet at an older age.
He cried at the final whistle. The grandparents who raised him died before they could see any of it. His mother missed the match because the family couldn't get her visa processed in time. That detail traveled so far that Hakeem Jeffries personally asked the Secretary of State to intervene, and five days later she was in the stands in Miami watching her son hold Uruguay.
The 18 million followers have a mechanism behind them. Brazilian broadcaster CazéTV told its viewers to follow him during the Spain broadcast. 46K became 1 million within minutes of the whistle. Every save after that compounded it: a second clean sheet against Saudi Arabia, then eight stops against Argentina yesterday, including a Messi free kick, before falling 3-2 in extra time.
Cape Verde, population 525,000, went home without losing a single match in 90 minutes. Their keeper went home with 400x the followers he arrived with.
Nineteen years bought him one trophy. Eighteen days bought him everything else.
انا متعاطف مع السنغال لما سمعت
أن مدرب السنغال ما كان ياخذ لمدة 6-5 شهور واضطر يمسك منتخب بلاده بدون راتب
ولاعبين السنغال نفسهم ما اخذوا أي مكافأة بسبب سوء اتحادهم
حتى من ناحيه الاكل والتغذية كان فيه سوء تغدية في معسكر السنغال في المونديال لان الاكل ما كان صحي ولا رياضي
لدرجة اضطروا اللاعبين أنهم يجيبون اكل من المحلات والمطاعم من جيبهم الخاص
هذي المشكلة جزء من مجموعة مشاكل أكبر في المعسكر: فندق رخيص، مشاكل مالية (مكافآت متأخرة)
وإدارة سيئة من الاتحاد. اللاعبين والطاقم كانوا متأثرين بسبب هالشي 😢
Historical World Cup for African teams. 🌍✊🏿
✅🇿🇦 South Africa
✅🇨🇻 Cape Verde
✅🇨🇮 Ivory Coast
✅🇲🇦 Morocco
✅🇸🇳 Senegal
✅🇬🇭 Ghana
✅🇪🇬 Egypt
✅🇨🇩 RD Congo
✅🇩🇿 Algeria
❌🇹🇳 Tunisia
9️⃣/🔟 teams have qualified to World Cup Round of 32 👏🏾✨