Cape Verde hand World Cup call-up to star who has played 13 minutes this season

Cape Verde have called Villarreal centre-back Logan Costa up for their first-ever World Cup even though he’s played just 13 minutes this season.

Costa has just come back from an ACL injury, but he is being immediately thrown into the squad.

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The 26-year-old suffered the injury in pre-season in July, and it has been a long road back.

But at the weekend, he came on during a 2-0 defeat to Rayo Vallecano which is deemed enough for World Cup debutantes Cape Verde to bring him in.

Paris-born Costa is widely considered to be the team’s best player having made 26 caps for them.

Many people see Costa as the only real shock inclusion, with the coach Bubista sticking with the players who made history by qualifying.

Cape Verde’s population is only around 600,000, making them the third-smallest country to be in North America this summer.

Understandably, a lot of the players were all born in other countries and represent Cape Verde through relatives. The majority of the squad are born in France, Ireland, Portugal and the Netherlands.

As a former colony, Portuguese players are the main ones going for Cape Verde.

A few of the standout players include Shamrock Rovers striker Roberto Lopes, Paris Saint-Germain‘s 18-year-old Fabio Domingos and the country’s all-time leading appearance maker and top scorer 36-year-old Ryan Mendes.

Ahead of making their World Cup debut, Cape Verde are taking on Serbia at the end of the month in Lisbon. They then face Bermuda on June 6.

Within their group, they start against 2010 winners and current European champions Spain with Uruguay and Saudi Arabia round off their group.

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Once in a lifetime

Bubista knows that Cape Verde are against the odds, but they are determined to give as good an account of themselves as possible.

Speaking ahead of the World Cup, he said: “We are so excited. I think the people are so excited and we’re going to do our best for our people.

“Our people are so excited and so happy. Our people in the world, it’s just so great for our qualification and now our people are so grateful for everything.

“We want to make an impact on the tournament for our people. 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.”

Cape Verde start their campaign against La Roja in a potentially historic match, though, there will likely be no Lamine Yamal due to injury.

“We know it’s a very difficult match,” Bubista added. “They have very good players. We will respect them but anything is possible. We’re going to do our best to show the world what we can do in football.

“We know it’s a hard game, but we have our heart and team spirit and this is important for us. Our unity is our strength.”

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