"Blue sharks" venture out into the open sea.

The Cape Verde national team (nicknamed "The Blue Sharks") is venturing into uncharted waters as they participate in the World Cup for the first time. They will face Spain, Uruguay, and Saudi Arabia in Group H of the 2026 World Cup.

The Cape Verde national team is a diverse group of players assembled by coach Pedro Leitao Brito (commonly known as Bubista). The 26-player squad represents 25 clubs from 14 countries and has more players born in Rotterdam, Netherlands (6 players) than in the capital city of Praia, Cape Verde. For a national football system built on a foundation of naturalized players, harmonizing complex cultural and linguistic identities is not a challenge, but something to be welcomed.

Cape Verde players celebrate securing their ticket to the 2026 World Cup. Photo: Getty

You may also like

Why would Austria and Algeria not want to win their final group stage match at the World Cup?TPO - Group J is facing the prospect of one of the most ironic and interesting scenarios in the final round of matches. At Kansas City Stadium, Austria and Algeria will face off in a match that experts believe neither team wants to win. The circumstances of both teams, coupled with a history of match-fixing, lead to this assessment.

Casillas admits to 'stealing' the 2010 World Cup winning jersey.The mysterious disappearance of the shirt that Iker Casillas wore in the 2010 World Cup final turned out to have originated from Casillas himself.

World Cup News 25.6: More teams qualify for the Round of 16, Neymar returns to Brazil.VHO - Crushing Scotland with a brace from Vinicius, Brazil confidently advanced to the knockout round as group C winners. Groups A and B also officially determined their progressers: Mexico, South Africa, Switzerland, and Morocco, respectively, after a series of incredibly dramatic final matches.

Cape Verde is known for its stable squad, having stayed together for nearly half a decade. Besides their physical style of play and solid defense, the "Blue Sharks" also showcase a distinctly island nation style, clearly demonstrated by technically gifted forwards like Ryan Mendes, Willy Semedo, and Jovane Cabral. Ahead of the 2026 World Cup, the biggest concern for the Cape Verde team is the fitness of center-back Logan Costa. He is of French origin, currently playing for Villarreal (in La Liga, Spain), but has yet to play in the 2025-2026 season due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament injury sustained last summer.

But for experts, the person most expected to help the Cape Verde national team create a surprise at the 2026 World Cup is coach Bubista. Bubista comes from a humble family on the island of Boa Vista (Cape Verde). His family highly valued education , even buying a house in Mindelo (a vibrant port city and cultural center of Cape Verde) for their children to attend school. But Bubista's love of football has prevailed. During his playing career, Bubista played in Portugal, Spain, and Angola, and captained the Cape Verde national team for nearly a decade.

Known as the "Silent Captain" during his playing career, Bubista was a man of few words and a diligent worker. His iron will and unwavering insistence that players speak only Creole (the language of Cape Verde) when on national team duty contributed to the team's success during his six years in charge. "That's the official language of the national team. Sometimes the players try to speak other languages, but I don't allow that to preserve the identity of Cape Verde," Bubista emphasized.

You may also like

Final match of Group F at the 2026 World Cup: A thrilling clash between Japan and Sweden.Group F will conclude with a thrilling clash between Japan and Sweden, and the Netherlands' easy victory over Tunisia, even though coach Ronald Koeman may rotate his squad.

World Cup 2026 Group D Predictions (9 AM, June 26th): A do-or-die situation.(Dan Tri Newspaper) - The match between Paraguay and Australia will directly decide the second qualifying spot in Group D of the 2026 World Cup. In this group, the USA has already secured first place, while Türkiye has been eliminated.

The next match at the 2026 World Cup is at risk of being postponed.Following the France-Iraq match, the Netherlands-Tunisia game in the final round of Group F of the 2026 World Cup is at risk of being postponed due to warnings of thunderstorms, lightning, heavy rain, and flooding in Kansas City (USA).

Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/the-thao/worldcup-2026/ca-map-xanh-tien-ra-bien-lon-1043939