💬 “A World Cup can absolutely transform a profile. It can be a crowning moment for an icon and also a time to announce the arrival of the next great thing.”
So says Owen Laverty of creative sports agency Ear to the Ground, in a piece by The Athletic’s Phil Buckingham.
Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha is, with all due respect, not an icon of football. And at the age of 40 and a club career that has taken him most recently to Portugal’s second tier, he is probably not “the next great thing” either.
But a look at his Instagram following says it all, with it having risen from 50,000 to more than 14million following his heroics in his nation’s historic draw against Spain in their opening game — and partly based on the story that his mother was unable to take in the spectacle in person. That situation should be corrected today after she arrived in the U.S. ahead of today’s match.
Can Vozinha back up his performance against Uruguay? Whether he can or can’t, his life has already been changed by the World Cup — like so many before him.
