Six Rotterdam players play in Cape Verde, which has advanced to the knockout phase. They know each other from the past, when they played football on the squares in the city

Anyone who can play football well in Rotterdam-West will soon be playing on two squares. The neighborhood children play football on the Sparta square, right next to the Sparta Rotterdam stadium. On the Müllerpier, a few kilometers further south, the best football players in the city play against each other. The matches are fanatical and of a high level, sometimes professional football players or talented boys from the youth academies of Ajax, Feyenoord and Sparta also participate.

Jamiro Monteiro beams when he talks about the squares. That’s why he knows them from, that’s where they played football with and against each other, the five other Rotterdam Cape Verdeans who are now at the World Cup with Monteiro. He stands in the catacombs of the Miami Stadium after the Uruguay – Cape Verde match, the 2-2 is celebrated as a victory. In addition to Monteiro, the brothers Laros and Deroy Duarte, attacker Garry Rodrigues and left back Sidny Lopes Cabral also played minutes in that match; striker Dailon Livramento remained on the bench.

“We all know each other since little“, says Monteiro. “Anyway, Rotterdam is small, all Cape Verdeans know each other. And we all come from Rotterdam-West, from Spangen, which makes it even more special. So yes, it is very strange, especially to play with three Rotterdammers in midfield today.”

It was never expected that they would ever play in a World Cup with Cape Verde. The archipelago off the coast of West Africa only qualified for a World Cup for the first time this year. The national team only made its debut in 2013 at the Africa Cup, the largest national tournament on the continent, and then surprisingly reached the quarter-finals.

A World Cup also seemed unattainable for a long time in the careers of most Rotterdam Cape Verdeans. The Duarte brothers were still considered the greatest talents; the eldest, Laros (29), was taken away from Sparta by PSV as a teenager. His younger brother Deroy (26) broke through at Sparta. Both played youth internationals for the Dutch team. They now play football in Hungary (Laros) and the top of Bulgaria (Deroy).

The others played on the fringes of football for a long time, or seemed to fall away on the way to professional football. Garry Rodrigues was the first to make his debut for the national team. He was in the youth team of Feyenoord, but at the age of twenty-one he played for the amateurs of FC Boshuizen in Leiden. ADO still opened its door to professional football. He played for major clubs such as the Greek PAOK and the Turkish top clubs Galatasaray and Fenerbahce – and thus gave an entire generation of Rotterdam street footballers the belief that it is always possible, despite rejections and setbacks.

Monteiro (32) himself was a bencher at a German amateur club and was without a club for a year before he was picked up at the age of twenty-two by Arne Slot, then coach of Cambuur’s promises. There he made his breakthrough, after which he played 131 matches in Major League Soccer, the largest American competition. He now plays football for PEC Zwolle. Dailon Livramento played in the youth of NAC and Roda before breaking through at the small MVV. One good season earned him a transfer to Serie A.

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Sidny Lopes Cabral, Jamiro Monteiro and Garry Mendes Rodrigues

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Sidny Lopes Cabral (23) experienced the steepest growth curve, especially in the past twelve months. He was playing in the youth of Feyenoord’s amateurs when he was scouted by FC Twente. After he dropped out there, adventures followed in the youth of a Swedish club and at the fifth, fourth and third levels in Germany. He was taken there a year ago by the Portuguese Estrela Amadora, who sold him to the big Benfica within six months. He suddenly found himself in the Champions League against Vinicius Jr. from Real Madrid. This summer he was sold on to Turkish sub-team Trabzonspor, his sixth club in four years.

The fact that they are now at the World Cup with Cape Verde is also due to policy. The national football association took advantage of FIFA’s programs to develop football in small countries, investing millions of dollars of FIFA funds in facilities. And the association actively looked for talent in the diaspora. For example, the Cape Verdean Irishman Roberto Lopes was approached via Linkedin – in Portuguese. He thought it was spam and didn’t respond. Only when the national coach sent him a message in English three quarters of a year later did he take action.

After the draw against Uruguay and earlier Spain (0-0), Cape Verde can qualify for the intermediate round early on Saturday morning (2 a.m. Dutch time). Then they must at least draw against Saudi Arabia and Spain must win against Uruguay. “It is not normal that we perform like this,” says Monteiro in Miami.

Look, he says, “here we have another Rotterdammer.” Deroy Duarte walks by. “We feel like the chosen ones,” says Duarte. Argentina may be waiting in the intermediate round, with Lionel Messi. “A solid pot,” he knows. “But also a wonderful experience. We are going to show Cape Verde to the world.”

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