Vozinha didn't play a minute in last year's AFCON qualifiers. Now he's helped Cape Verde to their first ever World Cup, wearing the armband three times.
Header image: via RFI
When asked about his favourite World Cup memories, Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha reels off watching Nigeria’s Nwankwo Kanu, Jay-Jay Okocha, and Taribo West, Brazil beating Germany in 2002 and Ronaldo’s displays in 1998 before Zinedine Zidane won the final for France.
As the conversation pivots to goalkeepers, the wide range of players reminisced on ranges from Michel Preud'homme and Jose Luis Chilavert to Gianluigi Buffon and Edwin van der Sar.
If we were to have the same conversation with a Cape Verdean goalkeeper in years to come, they might just reference Vozinha and the 3-0 victory over Eswatini that secured the nation’s first-ever place at the World Cup.
“It was the best moment of my life and my career,” the groundbreaking Chaves stopper tells Goalkeeper.com of that day, adding “the happiness we brought to our people, to our country, there aren't any words to describe this.”
Cape Verde’s opening match was a far cry from those joyous scenes due to a 4-1 defeat to Cameroon, which Vozinha describes as “one game we cannot explain”.
The response to that result was emphatic, with just four goals being conceded across their remaining nine qualifiers, as they went on to top the group. Vozinha’s stops certainly contributed to that record, with his denial of Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa just before half-time in a “very special” 1-0 win over Cameroon being “the most important save of my career and for qualification”.
Even so, the 39-year-old sees the work with his teammates as key to that record. “I have to work a lot during the day. I have to speak a lot normally, from when the game starts until the game finishes. When the game finishes, I don't have a voice,” he says. “I try to help my teammates to be in good positions. I try to alert them to anticipate things, not to let things happen.”
He continues: “Our country is small, our national team doesn't have big names like the other national teams, and our teamwork is always the best. So, our connections start off the field, from the first days we are here, and from each national team window we try to have a lot of good times off the field. We put on a lot of music, we dance, we joke with each other, and I think when we put this onto the pitch, it's something bigger.”
While Ryan Mendes is Cape Verde’s captain, Vozinha wore the armband three times during that campaign when the Igdir winger didn’t start. “To be captain of my country, it's an honour and a big pleasure for me. It's a privilege,” the goalkeeper says. “When I am captain, I have to show them I'm there for everything, I call them many times, I am always shouting, alerting and showing them that when I'm on the pitch representing Cape Verde, there is nothing more important.”
Reaching the stage many consider to be the pinnacle of football is even more impressive given Vozinha’s circumstances in both the long and short-term. “I started to play professionally at 25 years old. I started to play professionally in 2012 and from that time, after six, seven, eight months, I was the number one goalkeeper of my country,” he explains.
Currently playing his club football in the Portuguese second tier, Vozinha continues: “Maybe if I started earlier, I could be at a better level, but this is the level that I have achieved. And to be goalkeeper of the national team, this is the biggest level I can have as a goalkeeper. I'm very happy to play against these big names, but when I am on the field, I just think of me and my team.”
Then, there are Cape Verde’s experiences on the way to this achievement, with Vozinha stating that “we knew our day was coming”. He continues: “We were close many times. In the World Cup of Brazil, something happened [fielding an ineligible player], and they took us to court, we didn't play the play-off. In the last qualification, we fought against Nigeria until the last game, we drew in Nigeria in very difficult conditions - it's very difficult to win in Nigeria. We drew there, we needed to win, but we didn't.”
This campaign had also seen Vozinha and Cape Verde come back from a more recent period of difficulty. With Al-Hazem’s Bruno Varela being chosen in goal, the 39-year-old didn’t play at all in the country’s Africa Cup of Nations qualification campaign, which ended in disappointment.
“I was really sad to not be in the first 11, but in the end I was more sad because we didn't qualify, not because I didn't play, because regardless of whether I play or not, the most important thing is the national team,” he says. “It was a very hard time. I was thinking of stopping with the national team. All my teammates talked to me, they encouraged me to stay because of the World Cup, I stayed because of that, because it was my dream, the dream of all of us.”
He continues: “Now I have to be glad every day to have this chance again. I will work every day to try to be on the list for the last squads. Then we'll go to the World Cup, and then the coach will decide. But just to be in the World Cup will be amazing.”
Vozinha admits that he has imagined being at the World Cup “many times”, and the path it has taken to reach there makes the achievement even more special.
“When things happen, they always happen for a reason, and I will never give up. I will never turn my back on my country. It was just a moment,” he says. “We are a small country, our federation fights with nothing, with no money, no conditions. Sometimes the trip is very long, we make a lot of stops in many countries to go to one game. We have passed through many difficult moments, but we never give up. These situations always make us stronger, and in the end, we have to be glad and to say thanks God and thanks for everything that we could achieve in this big tournament.”
Now that Vozinha has played his part in Cape Verde reaching the World Cup, he now revels in the responsibility of helping them thrive in the USA, Mexico, and Canada. “I have to do everything on the pitch to help my teammates, to help my country, and I will always do this,” he says.
“I hope we can keep one, two or even three clean sheets. If we keep three in the group stage, this means we'll go to the next round,” he continues. “I will work hard every day. I will visualise this every day. I always study the opponents a lot, how they move, how they shoot, the corners, free-kicks, penalties. So, I will do my work on the pitch and see a lot of videos of the opponents. We know that in football we cannot stop everything, but I will work a lot for me, for my teammates. I will push for them to work hard also.”
Vozinha, his teammates and the win over Eswatini are already guaranteed to go down in Cape Verdean legend. If he manages to pull that off in North America, it will be marvelled at by generations to come.
