{"id":41381,"date":"2026-06-16T10:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T10:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/41381\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T10:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T10:49:09","slug":"cape-verde-goalkeeper-vozinhas-instagram-following-sky-rockets-after-spain-draw-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/41381\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha\u2019s Instagram following sky-rockets after Spain draw \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha has gained over six million followers on social media since his heroics kept out Spain.<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old produced an incredible performance in Monday\u2019s 0-0 draw in Atlanta, which has seen his following on Instagram sky-rocket from 50,000 to over six million.<\/p>\n

Only five England players in Thomas Tuchel\u2019s World Cup squad have more followers on the platform \u2013 Jude Bellingham, Marcus Rashford, Harry Kane, Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is insane, I didn\u2019t expect that,\u201d Vozinha told the Men in Blazers podcast of his increased social media following.<\/p>\n

\"What<\/a>\"Montpellier<\/a><\/p>\n

The numbers had swelled to 1.1m at full-time, and by 11am on Tuesday morning UK time had surged to 6.3million.<\/p>\n

Vozinha said: \u201cThings run fast on Instagram, but I didn\u2019t believe it. I still don\u2019t believe, but it is what it is. Thank you to everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe World Cup is the big stage in the whole of football and it is every kid\u2019s dream to be here one day.<\/p>\n

\"VozinhaVozinha makes a full-stretch save to deny Spain in Cape Verde\u2019s shock 0-0 World Cup draw (Miguel Martinez\/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP) (Miguel Martinez\/Miguel Martinez\/Atlanta Journal-) <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we inspire the next generation it is always good. To hear kids say one day they want to be Vozinha, I am very grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vozinha made seven crucial saves \u2013 the only goalkeeper over 40 years of age to have made more in a World Cup match was Pat Jennings with 10 for Northern Ireland against Brazil in 1986 \u2013 to deny Spain, one of the favourites to win the competition.<\/p>\n

Cape Verde, which consists of 10 volcanic islands off the coast of West Africa, is the third smallest country by population to qualify for a World Cup, with around 500,000 living there.<\/p>\n

As well as going viral on social media, Vozinha became the oldest goalkeeper in World Cup history to keep a clean sheet on his tournament debut.<\/p>\n

Cape Verde return to action against Uruguay in Miami on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha has gained over six million followers on social media since his heroics kept out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7414,2266,7415,2383,1686,1150,91,936,17,3545,841,19159,369,6641],"class_list":["post-41381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-bukayo-saka","tag-cape-verde","tag-declan-rice","tag-england","tag-harry-kane","tag-international","tag-jude-bellingham","tag-marcus-rashford","tag-spain","tag-thomas-tuchel","tag-uk","tag-vozinha","tag-world-cup","tag-worldcup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}