One question for each 2026 World Cup team. What can the Cape Verde team of veteran journeymen do at their first World Cup?
Would you love me in a Bentley? Would you love me on a $95 bus from downtown Boston to Gillette Stadium? Footnote is asking 48 questions, and they’re all about the 48 teams at the 2026 World Cup. This post is part of our Group G preview. You can also read previews of Uruguay, Saudi Arabia and Spain.
What can the Cape Verde team of veteran journeymen do at their first World Cup?
The 2026 World Cup is full of players that are, broadly speaking, trying to pull one last job.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, James Rodriguez, Edin Dzeko, and Mohammed Salah are all appearing in what is more than likely their last major tournament — or at least the last major tournament where they can make a real impact.
Cape Verde, meanwhile, are full of veteran players that are trying to pull one first job.
The Blue Sharks1Excellent nickname for an island nation, which serves as the inspiration for a truly excellent kit. are participating in their first-ever World Cup, a tremendous achievement for a nation that consists of ten volcanic islands and just under 500,000 people. There are ton of first-time qualifiers at the 48-team World Cup, so it is worth examining which one of these teams are simply beneficiaries of the expanded format.
For Cape Verde, this is not merely the case of Africa getting four new tickets to the tournament: They ground their way through a group that included a very talented Cameroon team and an Angola team that boasted a number of players that play in decent European leagues. Cape Verde managed seven wins and two draws across ten matches, finishing a comfortable four points clear of Cameroon to clinch their spot in North America.
The team that finally brought Cape Verde to their first World Cup is hugely experienced. As Aubrey Drake Graham once said, Cape Verde’s squad are both the rookies and the vets. The roster is full of guys in their 30s who will make their World Cup debuts after making careers out of being dependable players for mid-level European teams.
Captain Ryan Mendes broke through in France, played very briefly in England, and is now on his fourth team in Tukiye. Nuno da Costa will likely start up front for the Blue Sharks, and has similarly moved around France and England and Turkiye. The team’s number 10 and creative hub is Jamiro Monteiro, a Dutch-born player who has had stints with the Philadelphia Union and San Jose Earthquakes and is currently back in the Netherlands with PEC Zwolle.
It is hard to predict exactly how well this veteran team is going to perform. Cape Verde were undefeated in 2025, which sounds great but comes with the caveat that this was partially because they failed to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco. That AFCON qualifying campaign was a particularly bad one, including home losses to both Botswana and Mauritania.
But the 2025 AFCON failure was sandwiched between a strong campaign qualifying for the 2026 WOrld Cup and a 2023 Cup of Nations that featured a win over Ghana and a run to the quarterfinals. Recent results include a respectable draw against Finland and a fairly dominant win over a Serbia team that left most of their big names at home but still started a number of players from much bigger European clubs than those on the Cape Verde team. So the Blue Sharks have a history of results against teams that are around their level and a little bit better than them.
This sets them up for a potentially great final group game against Saudi Arabia. Based on ELO, this is one of the closest matchups of the group stage, with Cape Verde ranked just one spot and 17 points behind Saudi Arabia. It’s as good of an opportunity to win their first World Cup match as they’ll have.
Cape Verde have an array of players who have worked for decades to get the team to this place, and who have made careers by being quietly decent away from the brightest lights in Europe. They’re a team unlikely to be overwhelmed by the moment that they have earned.
And while they are unlikely to make an impact on the knockout rounds, this group of veterans do have a chance for at least one moment in the true global spotlight.
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