World Cup
The small African country with big World Cup dreams
Cape Verde sways to the sound of morna, a homegrown folk music laced with melancholy, longing and soul. Morna’s most famous song, “Sodade,” remembers the tens of thousands of emigrés who have left these 10 islands sprinkled off the coast of West Africa for work and opportunities abroad.
“If you write me, I’ll write you,” the song’s lyrics go. “If you forget me, I’ll forget you.”
In the next few weeks, Cape Verdeans hope their sense of nostalgia will turn to celebration. Their eyes are on the national soccer team, which is packed full of stars whose parents or even grandparents left Cape Verde years ago but who still consider the islands home.
The Blue Sharks, as the team is known, are one of the surprise qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup. With fewer than 600,000 inhabitants, Cape Verde is the third smallest country by population to ever reach the world’s biggest sporting event (after Iceland in 2018 and Curacao, also in 2026).
Cape Verde’s national team combines local talent with a raft of foreign-born players, including centre-back Roberto Lopes, who was born in Ireland to an Irish mother and Cape Verdean father, and Logan Costa, who was born in France to Cape Verdean parents and plays for Villarreal in Spain.
The combination of local and international talent has proven magically effective. Cape Verde won seven of their 10 games in World Cup qualifiers, losing just once and scoring a huge upset win at home against African heavyweights Cameroon.
The World Cup will be another level. Ranked 69th in the world, the Blue Sharks will face tournament favourites Spain, two-time World Cup winners Uruguay and Saudi Arabia (a relative minnow but still ranked higher at 61st) in the group stage.
But locals have faith.
“I’m very proud,” said Anton Delgado, 25, after spending a recent Sunday afternoon with friends in a bar in Mindelo, a city on the island of São Vicente. “It’s a marvel. I’ve been waiting years for this. We have real hope that we can win a game or even two.”
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That sense of hope is widely shared across Cape Verde. The tiny nation’s restaurants, bars and cafes are normally packed with singers and bands playing morna for tourists and locals alike. Now they are gearing up for the World Cup.
At the Café Royal, a hotel and restaurant in Mindelo, staff are planning for big crowds. The Royal features a large mural of morna superstar Cesária Évora, who, even 15 years after her death, remains the most famous Cape Verdean in the world. But it is the country’s football stars that everyone wants to talk about now.
Noaela Delgardo, 22, who works behind the bar at the Royal, said the World Cup is a rare opportunity for other Cape Verdeans to shine and for the country to gain “more visibility in the world.”
Despite the growth of tourism, it is hard not to feel the archipelago’s isolation and distance from bigger centres. There are flights from Europe, but the only direct flight to the United States lands in Providence, Rhode Island – a legacy of 19th-century whaling ties between the two places and the large Cape Verdean community that lives in Providence today.
The World Cup is a chance to close that distance, said pensioner Jorge Goncales, 69, sitting with friends one morning in a tree-filled Mindelo square. “The whole world comes to us. Now we go out to the world.”
Head coach Pedro Leitão Brito — who was named Africa’s Coach of the Year last year and is better known by his nickname, Bubista — also sees a chance to put Cape Verde on the map.
“We want to make an impact on the tournament for our people,” he told CNN a few weeks ago. “We want to show everyone watching that, yes, we’re a small country, but we can play against the big teams. We know it’s hard, but we want to show that nothing is impossible.”
-Reuters
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Nine people sustained non-life-threatening injuries in a shooting near England’s World Cup base camp in Kansas City, Missouri, on Saturday, days before the tournament is due to kick off.
Kansas City police said there were no suspects in custody and that at least three of the shooting victims were transported to local hospitals.
The incident occurred roughly four miles from where England are set to train at Swope Soccer Village. England have not arrived in Kansas City and are due to play a friendly against Costa Rica in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for the FA declined to comment.
Gun violence is common in the United States, where there were more than 400 mass shootings in 2025, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
-Reuters
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Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman plans to use Monday’s friendly against Uzbekistan in New York as an opportunity for his first-choice line-up to have a proper dress rehearsal ahead of their opening World Cup clash against Japan next weekend.
The rest of the Dutch squad will then play a second unofficial game against the Uzbeks straight afterwards, made up of two 35-minute halves, Koeman announced on Sunday.
“We want to use the first match to make as few changes as possible. We have to wait and see if that works,” he said at a press conference ahead of the clash at the Ichan Stadium.
“We are going to play the first match largely with our starting team. It is also good for guys who are not 100% fit, who can then play in the second match. That is why we are playing two matches.
“We have 26 players, and everyone gets minutes to play. That’s what you want.”
A decision still needs to be made regarding defender Jurrien Timber, who only joined the squad last Thursday after playing for Arsenal in the Champions League final on May 30.
It was Timber’s first outing since March after struggling with a groin injury, and there remains concern over his levels of fitness.
“If he trains and is fully fit, he always makes a good impression. That hasn’t been the case every day, so we have to make a decision,” Koeman told reporters.
“He participated in training, and we are going to sit down with the doctor and Jurrien at the end of Sunday afternoon to see whether he is going to start or not,” the coach added.
The Dutch open their Group F campaign against Japan in Dallas on Sunday. Uzbekistan take on Colombia on June 17 in Group K.
-Reuters
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The Democratic Republic of Congo’s final World Cup warm-up fixture against Chile will take place behind closed doors in the French city of Orleans on Tuesday, a team spokesperson has confirmed.
The fixture had originally been scheduled for Cadiz in Spain, but the city’s mayor cancelled it due to concerns over the Ebola virus outbreak, opens new tab in the central African country.
The squad are preparing for the global finals in the Spanish city of Marbella, having completed a 10-day training camp in Belgium, where they played to a 0-0 draw with Denmark on Wednesday.
United States officials told players and officials they needed to have been outside the DRC for 21 days and symptom-free before they would be allowed to enter the country to participate in the World Cup.
None of the 26-player squad plies their trade in the DRC, as most play for clubs in Europe, while a handful of officials have travelled from the country to be in camp. All individuals are compliant, according to team officials.
After Spain, the Congolese team will travel to their World Cup base in Houston on Thursday. They open their Group K campaign against Portugal six days later, before facing Colombia in Guadalajara on June 23 and Uzbekistan in Atlanta on June 27.
As of Saturday, the number of confirmed Ebola cases in the country had increased to 488, including 86 deaths.
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