Cabo Verde star gains 4M followers after stunning performance against Spain

Fans online have flocked to 40-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha after the veteran stopper put in a headline-grabbing against Spain on Monday.

Cabo Verde are making their World Cup debut this summer, appearing in soccer’s biggest event for the first time ever. The first fixture for the ‘Blue Sharks’ was a meeting with European champions Spain and Vozinha starred in a 0-0 draw, a huge shock to the tournament favorites.

At halftime, Brazilian YouTube channel CazéTV called on its audience to follow Vozinha on Instagram, trying to get the 40-year-old to 100,000 followers. At the time, he was on around 50,000.

The audience acted swiftly and within minutes he was at 200,000 followers. Within one hour of the game ending he had soared to 2 million followers and he stood at 4 million by Monday evening.

Vozinha (40 years, 8 days) is one of seven players aged 40 or older at this summer’s tournament. As of Monday, June 15 he is the second-oldest player to appear at the 2026 World Cup, behind Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer (40 years, 76 days).

But that distinction will not last. Still to play are Cristiano Ronaldo (41 years, 126 days) and Luka Modric (40 years, 275 days) who will almost certainly appear for their respective nations.

Elsewhere, Craig Gordon (43 years, 162 days), Guillermo Ochoa (40 years, 333 days) and Edin Dzeko (40 years, 86 days) did not feature in their teams’ first World Cup fixtures but could still play this summer.

For now, however, Vozinha has had the biggest impact at the World Cup and he has written his name into tournament history with the opening game clean sheet against Spain. Cabo Verde are still to play Uruguay and Saudi Arabia in their group stage and will now that one win from those games will almost certainly be enough to progress to the knockout rounds.

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