Dublin-born star worked as a banker before LinkedIn offer led him to World Cup

Roberto Lopes will be bringing the luck of the Irish with him when he makes history in Cape Verde’s World Cup debut against Spain.

The ex-Dublin bank worker will face the tournament favourites two days shy of his 34th birthday following a whirlwind road to the US.

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The defender, who was born in Ireland, has played the entirety of his 16-year career in his homeland, who failed to reach the World Cup.

Lopes, nicknamed ‘Pico’, earned his sole cap for the Republic of Ireland Under-19’s playing alongside Hull City star John Egan in 2011.

At the time, he was playing part-time for Bohemians in the League of Ireland while juggling work as a mortgage adviser in a Dublin bank.

However, his fortunes changed when former Arsenal reserve captain Stephen Bradley took charge of Shamrock Rovers and offered him the chance to leave his day job behind to turn professional in 2017.

Pico Lopes goes from banking to the World Cup

“A man I really respect,” Lopes explained after reading a letter from his club manager, Bradley, on the eve of his World Cup debut.

“I’ve been working with for 10 years now, so to have someone like that, it means a lot to me.

“I was playing football part-time in our league, and I was working a day job in the bank, and when he got in contact with me, and he spoke about his plan, it was something I always wanted to be.

“I’ve always wanted to be a full-time footballer, a professional footballer, since I was growing up on the streets playing football.

“To have this opportunity, I knew it was one I had to take.

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“It was risky because I was in a solid job, and where our league was at that moment, there wasn’t much security in terms of a career in football.

“When he spoke to me about his plan, his ideas and what he had going forward, I had to be a part of it.

“If it didn’t work out, I could always hold my head up and say I gave it the best I could.

“The idea was two years, and then 10 years later, we’ve achieved what we wanted to achieve, but we still want to have more as well.”

How did Pico Lopes end up playing for Cape Verde?

Two years into his near-decade stint at Shamrock Rovers, the Blue Sharks came calling ahead of a friendly against Togo.

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Cape Verde’s then-manager Rui Aguas embarked on a recruitment campaign and discovered Lopes’s father was from the African nation.

“The manager messaged me on LinkedIn in Portuguese, which I didn’t understand at the time, so I ignored it,” Lopes admitted.

“Thankfully, he messaged me again in English nine months later.

“I grew up in an era of prank phone calls and prank messages, so I was always a bit sceptical. I never thought an international call-up would come that way. I thought it would be a bit more formal in terms of the club being contacted. It was all new to me.

“Thankfully, curiosity got the best of me. Three weeks later, I was involved in the squad in Marseille. Now we’re going to a World Cup.”