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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Michael Butler

‘Pico’ Lopes and Cape Verde give Spain’s boys one hell of a neutralising

Cape Verde’s players get their celebrations on.
Cape Verde’s players get their celebrations on. Photograph: Claudia Greco/Reuters

IF THE CAPE FITS

About a month ago, Roberto “Pico” Lopes thought he was meeting his parents for a Sunday dinner in Crumlin on the outskirts of Dublin, but was met by a surprise party of friends, family and neighbours, all adorned in Cape Verde colours, to give him a special send-off for the Geopolitics World Cup. Dublin born and raised, Lopes looked positively delirious as he waved at the small crowd of loved ones. “We’re going to get a camper van and travel through the States,” beamed Lopes’s wife, Leah O’Shaughnessy, holding their seven-month-old son, Diego. “He probably won’t remember it, but we’ll be able to look back on the photos and videos and say that he was able to watch his daddy in the [GWC].”

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