Cape Verde national football team

Cape Verde became independent from Portugal in 1975. The national team's first international was a 1–0 defeat to Guinea on 29 May 1978, in a tournament in Guinea-Bissau.[5] The Cape Verdean Football Federation was formed in 1982, and joined FIFA in 1986.[6]

Cape Verdeans abroad, who are more numerous than the population of the islands themselves, are a major source of players for the national team. Most of Cape Verde's current international footballers play outside Cape Verde (mainly in Europe, but also in Asia), and some were born outside the islands.[7]

Several players of Cape Verdean origin have chosen to play for other national teams. These include Eliseu, Nani, Oceano, Manuel Fernandes, Rolando, Nélson Marcos, Jorge Andrade, Miguel and Silvestre Varela, who all represent Portugal, as well as Mickaël Tavares, Jacques and Ricardo Faty (Senegal), Patrick Vieira (France), Gelson Fernandes (Switzerland), Henrik Larsson (Sweden), David Mendes da Silva, Lerin Duarte, Jerson Cabral (Netherlands) and Rui (Equatorial Guinea), among other examples.

Cape Verde has never qualified for the FIFA World Cup but have qualified for the 2013 African Cup of Nations. Its first World Cup qualifying campaign was the 2002 World Cup qualifiers, in which Cape Verde was eliminated in the first round after one draw and one defeat against Algeria.[8]

In the qualification campaign for the 2006 World Cup and the 2006 African Nations Cup, Cape Verde advanced to the Final Round after its first victory in a World Cup qualifier, beating Swaziland. In the Final Round, the team made an impression with its first-ever away victory against Burkina Faso, but finished fifth in its group and failed to qualify for either finals.[8]

Old coach João de Deus from Portugal brought in several new players from European leagues for the 2010 World Cup/2010 African Nations Cup qualifiers.[7] Cape Verde finished second in its group in the Second round, ahead of Tanzania and Mauritius, but behind Cameroon, and did not advance to the Third round. Cape Verde's top goal scorer of the qualifying campaign was Dady.

Then, finally, Cape Verde qualified for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, after stunning Cameroon 3–2 on aggregate.

On 14 October 2012, Cape Verde managed to secure their first ever berth in the Finals of the Africa Cup of Nations, when they defeated Cameroon 3–2 on aggregate score, following a 2–1 defeat to Cameroon at the Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo in Yaoundé, having won the home leg 2–0 in Praia just weeks prior to their qualification.

On 24 October 2012, Cape Verde were drawn into Group A of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, alongside Angola, Morocco and the host nation South Africa. Furthermore, Cape Verde played the opening match of the tournament at Soccer City in Johannesburg, Gauteng, against South Africa on 19 January 2013 – Soccer City being the host venue for the 2010 World Cup Final. Pulled from the fourth pot during the group stage drawing of the tournament, Cape Verde actually had the highest FIFA ranking of any team in their group at the time of the drawing, ranking at 51st overall, followed by Morocco (71st), South Africa (72nd) and Angola (83rd). Cape Verde also had the 10th highest FIFA ranking in the CAF zone at the time of the drawing as well.

Cape Verde drew with South Africa 0–0 in the tournament's first match, before drawing with Morocco 1–1. Platini scored Cape Verde's first ever goal at the AFCON, who were unfortunate to let an early lead slip. They however did win their first ever AFCON match against Angola, which they won 2–1 (despite an early own goal by captain Nando Maria Neves), through the late goals from Fernando Varela and Héldon Ramos, thus qualifying for the quarter-finals, and thus reaching the last eight in their maiden appearance at the Africa Cup of Nations.

On 2 February 2013, Cape Verde faced Ghana in the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth, in the quarter-finals of the tournament. Cape Verde played a good match, with 16 shots on Ghana's goal to their eight, with seven shots on target to their two, Cape Verde proved to be especially dangerous from set-pieces, however Ghana's keeper Abdul Dauda managed to keep a clean sheet making some spectacular saves, and with Mubarak Wakaso scoring a penalty kick for Ghana in the 54' minute, and then scoring again in the closing minute of the game (90+5') on an open goal, Ghana would win the match 2–0, to move on to the semi-finals, and ending Cape Verde's exceptional 2013 Africa Cup of Nations campaign.[9]

On 15 October 2014, Cape Verde became the first of two nations to qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations alongside Algeria, joining the host nation Equatorial Guinea after defeating Mozambique 1–0 at home.[10] The team, under newly appointed manager Rui Águas, picked up where Lúcio Antunes left off and managed to finish in the top two of the group stage with two matches remaining to play in the qualification process, having been drawn in a group together with Mozambique, Niger and Zambia.[11] On 15 November 2014, Cape Verde secured first place in their group, finishing as Group F winners by defeating Niger 3–1 at home, with one match remaining to play for qualification.[12]

Pooled from Pot 3 on 3 December 2014, Cape Verde were drawn into Group B of the final tournament, together with Zambia, Tunisia and DR Congo. On 18 January 2015 they played their first match against Tunisia at the Estadio de Ebibeyin. The match ended in a 1–1 draw, with Héldon leveling the score off a penalty kick in the 78-minute. Cape Verde then drew 0–0 against DR Congo four days later, with the advancement out of the group stage depending on the final match results of both teams.[13]

Facing off against Zambia on 26 January 2015, with both teams depending on the result of the other match between Tunisia and DR Congo and having to finish with a win themselves, the match ended in 0–0 draw, leaving both Cape Verde and Zambia eliminated from the Cup.[14] Contested during a tropical storm, with 26 mm of heavy rainfall, Cape Verde exited the tournament tied with DR Congo for points and undefeated, yet losing to DR Congo on goal difference. Exhibiting good form, poise and defensive prowess, the team were only able to score one goal, while exiting at the group stage of their second appearance in the finals of the tournament, while remaining unbeaten in any Cup of Nations group stage match.[15]

Cape Verde has two titles: It hosted and won the Amílcar Cabral Cup in 2000, and won the gold medal in the football tournament at the 2009 Lusophony Games. The team also won a bronze medal at the 2006 Lusophony Games. For the first time in its history, on 2 November 2002, it faced a non-African team, Luxembourg, in a friendly, resulting in a scoreless draw. On 4 September 2009, it faced Malta in a friendly, resulting in a 2–0 victory. On 24 May 2010, Cape Verde played out a 0–0 draw in a friendly match against a full-strength Portugal.[16] At the time, Portugal was third in the FIFA rankings and Cape Verde were 117th.[17] On 31 March 2015, a second friendly against Portugal resulted in a 2–0 victory in Portugal.[18]

The following players were called up for the friendlies against Algeria and Comoros on 12 and 17 October 2023 respectively[27]

Caps and goals correct as of 12 October 2023, after the match against Algeria.[28]

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
	1GK	Vozinha	(1986-06-03) 3 June 1986	64	0	Trenčín
	1GK	Márcio Rosa	(1997-02-23) 23 February 1997	1	0	Anadia
	1GK	Bruno Varela	(1994-11-04) 4 November 1994	1	0	Vitória Guimaraes
	1GK	Tiago Gomes	(2002-08-14) 14 August 2002	0	0	Union SG
	2DF	Pico	(1992-06-17) 17 June 1992	21	0	Shamrock Rovers
	2DF	Dylan Tavares	(1996-08-30) 30 August 1996	19	1	Bastia
	2DF	Diney	(1995-01-17) 17 January 1995	18	0	Al Bataeh
	2DF	Steve Furtado	(1994-11-22) 22 November 1994	16	0	CSKA 1948
	2DF	João Paulo	(1998-05-26) 26 May 1998	13	1	Sheriff Tiraspol
	2DF	Logan Costa	(2001-04-01) 1 April 2001	7	0	Toulouse
	2DF	João Correia	(1996-09-05) 5 September 1996	3	0	Chaves
	2DF	Sidny Lopes Cabral	(2002-09-18) 18 September 2002	1	0	Rot-Weiß Erfurt
	2DF	Steven Moreira	(1994-08-13) 13 August 1994	1	0	Columbus Crew
	2DF	Kristopher Da Graca	(1998-01-16) 16 January 1998	0	0	HJK
	3MF	Jamiro Monteiro	(1993-11-23) 23 November 1993	29	2	San Jose Earthquakes
	3MF	Kenny Rocha Santos	(2000-01-03) 3 January 2000	23	1	AEZ Zakakiou
	3MF	Patrick Andrade	(1993-02-09) 9 February 1993	14	0	Qarabağ
	3MF	Deroy Duarte	(1999-07-04) 4 July 1999	10	0	Fortuna Sittard
	3MF	Kevin Pina	(1997-01-27) 27 January 1997	5	1	Krasnodar
	3MF	Leandro Andrade	(1999-09-24) 24 September 1999	4	0	Qarabağ
	3MF	Diogo Mendes	(1998-01-24) 24 January 1998	0	0	Maritimo
	4FW	Ryan Mendes	(1990-01-08) 8 January 1990	67	14	Fatih Karagümrük
	4FW	Garry Rodrigues	(1990-11-27) 27 November 1990	44	7	Ankaragücü
	4FW	Willy Semedo	(1994-04-27) 27 April 1994	16	0	Omonia
	4FW	Bebé	(1990-07-12) 12 July 1990	13	5	Rayo Vallecano
	4FW	Gilson Tavares Benchimol	(2001-12-29) 29 December 2001	10	4	Benfica B
	4FW	Jovane Cabral	(1998-06-14) 14 June 1998	6	1	Salernitana
	4FW	Bryan Teixeira	(2000-09-01) 1 September 2000	5	0	Sturm Graz
	4FW	Clé	(1997-12-12) 12 December 1997	5	1	Belenenses
	4FW	Duk	(2000-02-16) 16 February 2000	4	0	Aberdeen
	4FW	Hélio Varela	(2002-05-03) 3 May 2002	1	0	Portimonense
	4FW	Serginho	(2001-01-29) 29 January 2001	0	0	Viborg

The following players have been called up for Cape Verde in the last 12 months.

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club	Latest call-up
GK	Dylan Silva	(1999-02-10) 10 February 1999	0	0	Sintrense	vs.  Togo, 10 September 2023
GK	Keven Ramos	(1994-06-06) 6 June 1994	1	0	Batuque	vs.  Burkina Faso, 18 June 2023
DF	Romario Carvalho	(1993-11-20) 20 November 1993	0	0	Oliveira do Hospital	vs.  Togo, 10 September 2023
DF	Stopira (captain)	(1988-05-20) 20 May 1988	58	3	Unattached	vs.  Burkina Faso, 18 June 2023
DF	Ivanildo Fernandes	(1996-03-01) 1 March 1996	2	0	Ittihad Kalba	vs.  Burkina Faso, 18 June 2023
MF	Cuca	(1991-01-09) 9 January 1991	7	0	União de Leiria	vs.  Togo, 10 September 2023
MF	Laros Duarte	(1997-02-28) 28 February 1997	0	0	Groningen	vs.  Togo, 10 September 2023
MF	Bruno Freire	(1999-03-27) 27 March 1999	0	0	Dudelange	vs.  Togo, 10 September 2023
MF	Hélder Tavares	(1989-12-26) 26 December 1989	14	0	Tondela	vs.  Burkina Faso, 18 June 2023
MF	David Tavares	(1999-03-18) 18 March 1999	3	0	Torreense	vs.  Burkina Faso, 18 June 2023
MF	Telmo Arcanjo	(2001-06-21) 21 June 2001	4	0	Vitória Guimarães	vs.  Eswatini, 28 March 2023
FW	Lisandro Semedo	(1996-03-12) 12 March 1996	17	2	Radomiak Radom	vs.  Togo, 10 September 2023
FW	Papalélé	(1998-03-16) 16 March 1998	2	1	Karviná	vs.  Togo, 10 September 2023
FW	Alessio da Cruz	(1997-01-18) 18 January 1997	1	0	Feralpisalò	vs.  Eswatini, 28 March 2023
WD Player withdrew from the squad due to non-injury issue. INJ Player withdrew from the squad due to an injury. PRE Preliminary squad. RET Player has retired from international football. SUS Suspended from the national team.