AFCON: Roberto Lopes ignored LinkedIn message for NINE MONTHS but is now set to play …

Scanning his LinkedIn account in 2019, Shamrock Rovers defender Roberto Lopes came across a peculiar invitation in a foreign language.It was the then-manager of the Cape Verde national football team, Rui Aguas. Yet after ‘connecting’ with him, the Dublin-born centre back ignored his follow-up message. It almost cost Lopes – unbeknown to him – a shot at international football. ‘Through sheer ignorance and probably rudeness, I didn’t translate the message! I just assumed it was spam and was a standard LinkedIn greeting in Portuguese, which I don’t speak’ Lopes tells Sportsmail, on the eve of playing in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.  Shamrock Rovers star Roberto Lopes ignored a LinkedIn message which would change his life The Irish-born centre back (back row, third from left) will now represent Cape Verde at AFCON Nine months later though, after a follow-up text in English from Aguas, the Shamrock Rovers star realised to his astonishment he wasn’t being led up the garden path. Yes, the Cape Verdean Football Federation really did want him to declare for the small island country in the Atlantic Ocean, through his Cape Verdean father. He only set up his LinkedIn page at college eight years earlier, while studying Leisure Management at…
Read More