Football players use Google Translate to participate in the World Cup.

Roberto "Pico" Lopes' journey to playing for the Cape Verde national team began with a recruitment message on LinkedIn.

Lopes' journey playing for the Cape Verde national team has attracted attention. Photo: Reuters .

The 34-year-old center-back, born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, never imagined he would have the opportunity to play internationally. According to British media reports, the Cape Verde Football Association first contacted Lopes via LinkedIn. However, because the message was written in Portuguese, Lopes didn't understand the content and assumed it was just a polite greeting.

"I didn't understand what they wrote. I thought it was just a greeting message so I ignored it," the player once shared in an interview with CNN .

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It wasn't until about nine months later, when using Google Translate to reread the message, that Lopes realized it was an invitation to join the Cape Verde national team. From then on, his career entered a completely new chapter.

The Cape Verde national team (in dark blue jerseys) made history by qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. Photo: Reuters .

Making his debut for the national team in 2019, Lopes quickly became a key player in the Cape Verde squad. Despite not speaking Portuguese and only learning Creole, the Shamrock Rovers center-back has earned special affection from fans thanks to his dedication and consistent performance.

Remarkably, about a decade ago, Lopes was still working as a bank mortgage consultant to make ends meet while playing football semi-professionally. From a player who juggled work and football, he rose to become a national team player and compete on the world's biggest stage.

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On the night of June 15th, Lopes and his teammates entered a historic match at the 2026 World Cup when they faced Spain.

Source: https://znews.vn/cau-thu-dung-google-dich-de-du-world-cup-post1659894.html