Roberto Lopes is an international regular for Cape Verde.
Roberto Lopes joked that he too could become an African international when his teammate Ayman Ben Mohamed got a surprise call-up to play for Tunisia.
In May of 2016 Lopes was not being serious. He is about to compete at the Africa Cup of Nations, which kicks off next month.
The defender, who was born in the Irish capital to a Cape Verdean father and Irish mother, had no thoughts of competing for the small archipelago until Ben Mohamed's call-up.
He got called up after declaring for Tunisia after a good season, according to Lopes.
I was going to get the paperwork done for becoming an international because I was from Cape Verde, and I was joking.
There was a journalist who contacted someone in the Cape Verde federation but nothing happened.
Cape Verde will have a squad for the finals of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2021.
Three years after his move to Shamrock Rovers, Lopes got a message on his profile on the networking site, which set the ball rolling.
He set up a profile in college but never looked at it.
I received a message from the coach, but he wrote to me in Portuguese. I didn't notice the message, I thought it was a scam. He asked Roberto if he had a chance to consider what he had said.
I felt rude for not responding earlier. I put the message into the translation service. Would you be interested in declaring for Cape Verde if we got new players into the squad?
I was very excited about that. I said I would love to be a part of the squad.
The initiation is ice-breaking.
The team of the year was named at the PFA Ireland Awards.
The paperwork trail led to a trip to Marseille, where the side was playing a friendly in October and where Lopes could meet his new team-mates for the first time.
It was going to be difficult. While his dad was a chef on the ferries that service Ireland before he settled in Dublin, he didn't know Portuguese. They did not say it at home when he was young.
The 29-year-old centre-back played every minute of Cape Verde's six World Cup qualification matches between September and November, where they took Nigeria down to the wire in a bid to get to Africa's play-offs.
In March, he played in the home win over Cameroon that helped his country book their place in the Nations Cup finals.
How did Cape Verde become a regular attendee at the convention?
It was the first competitive international for him after he switched international loyalties. The Republic of Ireland had to apply to the Irish FA for the right to have Lopes represent them at youth level.
Concerns about a potential language barrier with his new team-mates proved to be false.
"I was so nervous but once I went over, all the doubts and fears just went away because everyone made me feel so welcome," Lopes said.
Team-mates would try to get me to say how I'm doing. Football has its own language when you're on the field.
I suppose the biggest break in the ice was when I had to sing an initiation song. I had a day to prepare. I went up to sing a song in a different language after being in Cape Verde for 24 hours and I was so happy that I was able to find Cape Verdean songs on the internet.
I've been lucky and the group and the manager have taken to me. I've tried to give my all every time I wear the jersey. I'm very proud to represent my family. I enjoy being a part of it.
Cape Verde upsets Lopes.
Most of the squad are drawn from the diaspora, particularly from Portugal and the Netherlands.
The quality of players was the one thing that stood out.
There are some superstars, like Ryan Mendes, Steven Fortes and Kenny Rocha. The players who are in the second division of Portugal or Cyprus are very strong and tough.
They push us to a different level. When you return to your club, you take that away. If I want to improve, I need to be able to perform at those levels and so you try to bring your game to the next level.
Cape Verde qualified for the World Cup in the year 2022.
The islanders are in Group A with Ethiopia, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso, and are expected to start Lopes.
He said they want to get out of the group phase. There are a lot of top teams that have qualified for this tournament, so you can't really think about that after that.
We're in a strong group with two other countries. I don't know a lot about Ethiopia but they are on merit. The most important thing is that we approach the first game with the mentality that we need to win.
The opening match of the tournament will be between the Indomitable Lions and the Ouagadougou team at the Olembe Stadium.
"We need to get out of our group before we can start thinking about the next rounds, quarter-finals and the like." We want to cause a few upsets and go as far as possible.
