Photo: Government of Cape Verde
The Cape Verde national team continues to receive praise from the world football community and from home after qualifying for the nation’s first-ever World Cup this week.
A 3-0 victory over Eswatini on Monday made it official that the Blue Sharks will represent Africa at the 2026 finals in the USA, Mexico and Canada. Cape Verde president José Maria Neves attended the match along with a packed crowd at the Estádio Nacional de Cabo Verde in Praia, and the president reserved the highest of praise for the team after their accomplishment in comments recorded by Expresso das Ilhas:
“This is, symbolically, a new independence. For we have proven that, in these 50 years, we have laid the foundations and grown in all areas of economic and social life. From an unlikely country in 1975, today, we reveal, once again, that we are now a country of possibilities. If we can go to the World Cup, we can also win in other spheres and show the world that we are a people with a great soul.”
The players and technical staff were awarded with the highest distinction of the nation and visited the office of Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva. “We made history. This country, these players, the coaching staff—we all made history,” the Prime Minister said.
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The Blue Sharks also received praise from around the world, especially from the international Lusophone community. FIFA president Gianni Infantino congratulated the team in a letter while Brazil president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Portuguese Football Federation president Pedro Proença were also among the notable names to send their congratulations.
The team and coach Bubista have time to enjoy a massive moment in not only the nation’s footballing history but Cape Verde’s history beyond the sporting realm.