A tiny nation's big triumph: Cape Verde all set for FIFA World Cup debut

A tiny nation, scattered across ten volcanic islands, with a population of about 525,000, has made history by qualifying for its first-ever FIFA World Cup.

Cape Verde, a nascent country in West Africa, earned the spot on Tuesday after beating Eswatini 3-0 in their last group match. 

Dailon Livramento, Willy Semedo and Stopira scored each goal after a parlous first-half as the team finished Group D on 23 points—four ahead of Cameroon, one of the continent's top soccer powers.

Cape Verde now joins Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria and Ghana, which have already qualified for the World Cup.

For a country shaped by severe droughts and scarce natural resources, this is a ‘dream come true’ moment. The team rarely played international football until a couple of decades ago; there was not even a national team when the country gained independence from Portugal in 1975.

Cape Verde is now the second-smallest nation by population ever to qualify for the tournament, after Iceland in 2018.

How did the country achieve this milestone? Experts give credit to the power of the global diaspora, often referred to as the 11th island of the archipelago. 

Nearly one million Cape Verdeans live abroad, primarily in Europe, and this vast network has become the vital force behind the national team.

The Netherlands is home to an estimated 23,000 people of Cape Verdean descent; it has produced six players in the current national team, including Livramento, the side’s leading scorer in the qualifiers with four goals, according to a Guardian report.

Smallest participant ever?

Not really. Iceland holds the record for the smallest country (by population) ever to qualify for a FIFA World Cup. When they debuted in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, their population was approximately 337,000. The smallest country by land area to play in the World Cup, meanwhile, is San Marino. The tiny nation qualified for the 1990 edition of the tournament.