The forty-year-old, forced out of retirement by his teammates, raised a wall against Spain: the tale of the archipelago that plays with fire inside and stops the European champions
The real secret of Cape Verde? Simple: be what they are, ten volcanic islands. That is, if you stay on your own, you are an island, but if ten islands with fire inside team up, they become a single archipelago and can also stop Spain, European champions, one of the favorites in the World Cup, if not the first favorite. The eleventh island? That’s the goalkeeper: Josimar José Evora Dias, known as Vozinha, the main protagonist of the tale. A face carved into the wood, which also looks older than its 40 years; a career that seems like the path of a fugitive: Angola, Moldova, Portugal (second series), Cyprus, Slovakia and Portugal again. He had already taken off his gloves, tired, but his teammates forced them back on him: “Will you give up now that we are living the dream of a World Cup?”.
Yesterday the dream, old Josimar, blocked it with his hands. He parried all noble Spain, including the divine Yamal. He flew everywhere and the ball always fell into his arms, like the one in love with a poor goalkeeper in Jorge Amado’s story. One filling after another, the door remained closed: Vozinha works as a dentist. Spain too now has its own, painful as a cavity; we have the ’66 Korean. Even if it was only such in legend. The legend of Cape Verde instead tells that, at the end of Creation, God found ten crumbs of earth in his hands, he dropped them into the ocean and the archipelago was born. The divine hands of old Josimar yesterday created a fairy tale that will conquer time. The tale of a team of supportive islands, full of fire. The low block archipelago.