{"text":[[{"start":7.75,"text":"The World Cup’s best player so far is Leo Messi, but the best story is Cape Verde. The country of 500,000 people marooned in the Atlantic off the African coast has already held both Spain and Uruguay to draws. And the story could get even better: avoiding defeat against Saudi Arabia in Houston on Friday would take the Blue Sharks to the second round, probably against Messi’s Argentina. If they make it, Cape Verde won’t just defend and foul. This feelgood story features proper footballers."}],[{"start":40.35,"text":"The tournament has introduced Cape Verde to the world. The rain-starved archipelago “between the stars and the Atlantic”, as the national anthem has it, was uninhabited until Portuguese colonisers arrived in the 15th century and eventually made it a staging post in the transatlantic slave trade. Later it became a land of emigration. Now Cape Verde’s diasporas in New England, Portugal, Rotterdam and Senegal are gathering at watch parties to cheer on their team. Amid delirious dancing in the canteen of a Rotterdam sports club after the scoreless draw with Spain, the DJ yelled, “There are police at the door! They’re complaining — because we’re not partying hard enough!”"}],[{"start":82.45,"text":"The diaspora is on the pitch too. Players include Dublin-born centre-back Roberto “Pico” Lopes, a former mortgage adviser recruited to the team on LinkedIn, son of a Cape Verdean cruise chef and an Irish mother who’s now a school secretary. Striker Dailon Livramento is the Rotterdam-born son of famed Cape Verdean singer Marizia. The six Rotterdammers in the squad outnumber players born in the country’s capital, Praia. "}],[{"start":109.7,"text":"A diaspora team incarnates a particular idea of the nation: one that includes its émigrés and their descendants forever. Cape Verde’s players feel that bond. Despite the team’s varied upbringings, manager Bubista insists they work in Cape Verdean Creole. "}],[{"start":125.55,"text":"He has held the job since 2020 — aeons in football time. Cape Verde cannot afford a fancy foreign coach just for the World Cup, unlike, say, Saudi Arabia. Similarly, the team is a tight band with little turnover, partly because Cape Verde’s talent base is small. It spoke volumes that midfielder Laros Duarte was substituted against Spain for his brother, Deroy. Their proud parents wept in the stands."}],[{"start":152.6,"text":"The embodiment of the nation’s story is the 40-year-old goalkeeper, Vozinha — a nickname that means “Little Granny”, because older boys in street football games would tease him about running back to his grandmother to cry. Since turning pro aged 25, the journeyman has worked everywhere from Angola to Moldova and Portugal’s second division, where his contract has just expired. After making seven saves against Spain, he said in tears: “I work hard all my life for this, for this moment, for this dream. A lot of generations in the past were dreaming of this, they didn’t achieve it.” He explained, “I cried because I grew up with my grandparents . . . they were everything for me, for my life. I also cried because my mum didn’t manage to be here because of the visa.”"}],[{"start":200.14999999999998,"text":"The mother’s story turned out to be more complicated. She does not appear to have applied for a visa, and the $15,000 bond demanded of many nationalities does not apply to players’ relatives during the World Cup. Perhaps she thought she had to pay. Either way, the viral interview reached Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader of the US House of Representatives, who is inevitably of Cape Verdean descent. Jeffries made a call to help Vozinha’s housecleaner mother obtain a visa, and she watched the 2-2 draw with Uruguay from the stands. Vozinha himself has jumped from around 50,000 Instagram followers to nearly 16mn after a Brazilian influencer publicised his account. He now hopes to play in Brazil."}],[{"start":243.59999999999997,"text":"The team has replaced singer Cesária Evora as Cape Verde’s face to the world. Imagine how strong it would be if it could recruit its best diaspora players. But stars with Cape Verdean roots like Patrick Vieira and Patrice Evra (France) and Henrik Larsen (Sweden) represented their European countries of birth, as do today’s Portuguese internationals Nuno Mendes, Nélson Semedo and Renato Veiga (whose dad played for Cape Verde). When Mendes won the Champions League with Paris Saint-Germain in May, he raised the trophy with a Cape Verdean flag tied around his waist. Semedo dreams of a World Cup final between Portugal and Cape Verde. "}],[{"start":283.24999999999994,"text":"Even without those players, the Blue Sharks do more than just the grim defence and hard tackling that’s usually favoured by the tournament’s minnows. Against Spain they conceded only one foul — the lowest in a World Cup match since records began in 1966. Lopes, the Dubliner, was not even sure whether to celebrate the draw against the European champions: “You’re still in that moment: ‘A point, is it good?’… we can play better.” They attacked against Uruguay, and probably will against the Saudis. If all goes well, they might have a crack at Messi’s men, too."}],[{"start":326.59999999999997,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1782483868_3462.mp3"}