Lopes hoping to build on historic outing for Cape Verde

SHAMROCK Rovers defender Roberto Lopes will be hoping to build on his historic appearance for Cape Verde in their African Cup of Nations win over Ethiopia when they take on Burkina Faso on Thursday.

Lopes is the first ever Irish-born player to feature at the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) and he and the Blue Sharks will need to be firing on all cylinders when they face The Stallions at the Olembé Stadium in Yaoundé, Cameroon this week.

Burkina Faso slipped to a first-round defeat at the hands of Cameroon and three-points against them, will guarantee Cape Verde’s spot in the knockout rounds of the 24-team competition.

On Monday, January 17, Lopes and the Cape Verde squad are set to go up against the hosts, Cameroon, who narrowly escaped defeat against Burkina Faso with Vincent Aboubakar converting two spot-kicks for a 2-1 triumph.

Playing for the full 90-minutes in Cape Verde’s 1-0 victory over Ethiopia on Sunday, Lopes subsequently etched his name into the history books.

After Ethiopia were reduced to 10 men following Yared Bayeh’s dismissal early on, the Blue Sharks took the lead through a Júlio Tavares headed effort just before half-time.

A Crumlin native, Lopes represented the Republic of Ireland at Under-19 level, but declared for Cape Verde later into his career, making his debut against Togo in 2019.

The talented centre half is eligible to represent the nation through his father Carlos.

Having shone at the heart of defence throughout their AFCON qualification campaign, Lopes was picked as part of the 26-man squad for the prestigious tournament.

Remarkably, 19 of the Cape Verde panel contracted COVID-19 during camp just weeks before the start of the competition, but all recovered in time to help the nation make a winning start.

League of Ireland Player-of-the-Year nominee, Lopes, almost missed the chance to represent the Blue Sharks at the AFCON.

Manager Rui Arguas reached out to Lopes through the social media platform, LinkedIn, back in 2018 and due to a language barrier, the message was ignored.

Argues followed up with Lopes a few months later, this time in English, and it kick-started his senior international journey.

Lopes was named 2021 Shamrock Rovers Player-of-the-Year and included in the PFAI Team-of-the-Year for his key role in the Hoops’ retaining the League of Ireland Premier Division title.