“This is crazy”
Goalkeeper can hardly believe his eyes after the game
Updated June 16, 2026 – 12:53 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
Hardly anyone knew the goalkeeper Vozinha before this World Cup. But that should change radically after his team’s performance against Spain.
When Vozinha looked at his cell phone again after the game of his life, the Cape Verde goalkeeper could hardly have believed his eyes. While the goalkeeper caused European champions Spain to despair at the 0-0 draw at Africa’s World Cup debut, his follower numbers on Instagram shot up. Hardly anyone knew the 40-year-old keeper before this World Cup.
The footballer from the Atlantic island, whose career is like that of a wandering bird, was followed by just 57,000 people on the platform before the game against Spain kicked off.
Half an hour after the final whistle, Vozinha broke the mark of over 1.5 million people who follow him on the social network. Later there were already 2.7 million (as of Tuesday, midnight CET). The trend continues to rise. The Brazilian broadcaster Caze TV asked its viewers to follow the keeper during half-time. The actual goal, 100,000 followers, was reached after just one minute.
“That’s crazy,” said Vozinha, who said he had almost 50,000 followers before the game, on Caze TV: “Thank you very much. The Brazilians have always been very warm to us.”
Three times as many followers as residents
The numbers continued to rise during the second round. After the final whistle, which made the sensation perfect and earned the World Cup debutant their first point, things continued lively. Vozinha, whose contract with GD Chaves of Portugal’s second division expires at the end of the month, now has over three times as many followers as his country’s population.
Vozinha also received extra praise from his coach. “I can only be grateful. He’s been with us for a long time, he’s very experienced. I don’t like to talk about individual players, but I think he played well,” said Pedro Leitao Brito, adding that the goalkeeper was “the best player on the field.” Fifa also saw it that way, whose officials named Vozinha “Man of the Match,” the best player of the game. That doesn’t happen too often for a 40-year-old.
“I’ve worked my whole life for this moment, for this dream,” said the keeper in an interview with Fox Sports after the game. “Generations before me have had this dream, but they were not granted it. We all worked hard to be here today – and we deserve to be here.”
Vozinha is already the second “no-name” from the World Cup to get started through an appeal on social media. Tim Payne had previously become an internet star after an Argentine influencer voted the New Zealander the most unknown player in the finals. Payne is now followed by 5.7 million people on Instagram.