How is football in Cape Verde?

How is football in Cape Verde?, Where the country is?. We are in the XXI century and football reaches every corner of the planet. In this case,We flew into this archipelago of islands lost in the Atlantic to Cape Verde, a small republic formed by a set of islands, 10 elders and 5 lower, being some uninhabited. Located about 600 Km. off the coast of Senegal, takes advantage of its geography to formalize a very unique football championship.

The Cape Verdean Football Championship was founded in 1976, after independence from Portuguese rule, although the first league tournament was played in 1953. Currently a dozen teams vying for the championship, but what matters is that each usually belongs to a different island. Nothing more and nothing less than 11, are the champions of their respective divisions island and completes the dozen is the champion of the previous year. Before independence the q.s.. He mindelense authoritatively dominated the Cape Verdean football 7 suspenders.

But nevertheless, after achieving independence from Portugal in 1976, Sporting Clube Praia and q.s. own. Mindelense maintains a particular pulse for being the best team in the country. Both they raised 9 Sometimes League trophy. Tables not end there, because if we count the palmar per island, still a tie. In 14 occasions, the champion was a native of Sao Vicente and identical times champion came from Santiago Island, where we can find the capital, Beach.

This exotic country of no more than half a million people can claim to have achieved in their first quarter-final in the last African Cup of Nations. He managed to qualify for this appointment after having thrashed 7-1 Madagascar and eliminating the always unpredictable Cameroon 3-2 in the preliminary rounds.

And contesting the last edition of the competition in South Africa, in January 2013, They gave the surprise by eliminating the group stage teams that have played World as Angola and Morocco. Finally, having options until the last minute fell in the quarterfinals against Ghana, artificer far the best African performance in a global.

Last September the FIFA eliminated Cape Verde in the fight to qualify for Brazil 2014. Blue sharks, as they are known in the world of football, They lined up in his victory against Tunisia to Fernando Varela, I had not finished serving a penalty of 4 matches. Paradoxically they had benefited from an identical penalty in the previous round against Equatorial Guinea. The maximum footballing world organization had cruelly in offices with the dream of the Creoles when faced the last stepping stone to Brazil 2014.

In the latest FIFA ranking of January, Creoles led by their coach Lucio Antunes hit the post 35. Clearly living the sweetest moment in its history with players spread across several European leagues. It stands above the other end of Lille, Ryan Mendes not forgetting names like Heldon, F. Varela, Ze Luis Garry Mendes, They are displaying their football in the top divisions of Portugal, Romania, Hungary or Bulgaria.

This week marks a year of spectacular participation in the African Nations Cup and secure blue sharks are eager to keep improving and try someday participate in the finals of a world. It seems that there is still some way off and other players in the category Nani, Elisha, Gelson Fernandez Manuel Fernandez and continue to prefer to defend the colors of other countries. By the way, the latter, Gelson Fernandez scored the goal with which Spain beat Switzerland in the opening match of the World Cup 2010. Even world stars already retired from the likes of Henrik Larsson or Patrick Viera have close ties with this arid Atlantic archipelago, and even they could have defended their elastic.

Football is peeling off the hands of aid programs and FIFA development in Africa, Cape Verde and perhaps one of the clearest evidence. Not long ago a Tecnificación Center opened in Praia and the Football Federation of Cape Verde expanded the program headhunter. Now it reaches countries such as Holland, U.S, Switzerland and Luxembourg, excluding of course those who already controlled as Senegal or Portugal.

Ojeadores they expand their borders and seek past all those millions of migrants who left the smallest country in Africa to earn a living and take root in scattered places on the planet. Now, the mission is to find those descendants and if his skills with the ball are conducive, to make the trip back to defend the blue sharks, as in the case of Valdo, former Levante and born in León (Spain). From Hanged for football did not want to miss the opportunity to meet the short history of this team that undoubtedly will talk soon.