Cape Verde has made history by qualifying for the World Cup finals for the first time, shortly after celebrating 50 years of independence from Portugal. Fans exploded after the Blue Sharks won 3-0 against Eswatini. The country now looks forward to possibly playing against their former colonial rulers, including stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes. For years, many Cape Verdeans used to cheer for Portugal but will now support their own players.
The group of islands have a population of about 550 000. While the best players play in Europe, the country has more than a dozen top league teams and thousands of footballers.
Football officials hope that qualifying for the World Cup will bring changes to the country, just as it did to Senegal in 2002.
Cape Verde is the second-smallest country, after Iceland, to ever make it to the World Cup finals. While expectations for the final tournament are not very high, there are hopes that this achievement will lead to more success in the future.
Ryan Mendez plays for Lille and is Cape Verde’s top goalscorer
Image:Liondartois, CC BY-SA 4.0,
via Wikimedia Commons
.JPG){kind=link}
Words
- achievement = the successful things you have done
- cheer = to applaud, support
- colonial ruler = the mother country; the country that has ruled you in the past
- dozen = twelve
- expectation = what you hope to achieve or do
- former = some time ago, in the past
- independence = to become free from another country that has controlled you
- look forward = to see something in the future that will make you happy
- make it to = here: qualify
- official = person who is in charge of an organization
- population = the people who live in a country
- success = here: better results
- support = help