{"id":21890,"date":"2026-06-15T23:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T17:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/meet-vozinha-cape-verde-goalkeeper-who-became-the-second-oldest-fifa-world-cup-debutant-football-news\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T23:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T17:43:10","slug":"meet-vozinha-cape-verde-goalkeeper-who-became-the-second-oldest-fifa-world-cup-debutant-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/meet-vozinha-cape-verde-goalkeeper-who-became-the-second-oldest-fifa-world-cup-debutant-football-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Vozinha: Cape Verde goalkeeper who became the second-oldest FIFA World Cup debutant | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-131751062,imgsize-166734,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/vozinha-1506-sd.jpg\" alt=\"Meet Vozinha: Cape Verde goalkeeper who became the second-oldest FIFA World Cup debutant\" title=\"Vozinha (Image credit: X)\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Ta7d_ img_cptn\"><span title=\"Vozinha (Image credit: X)\">Vozinha (Image credit: X)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>NEW DELHI: They say age is just a number, and Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha proved exactly that on the biggest stage of them all on Monday.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"1\"\/>The veteran shot-stopper made history by becoming the second-oldest debutant in men&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/fifa-world-cup\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">FIFA World Cup<\/a> history when he took the field for Cape Verde against 2010 champions Spain in Atlanta.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"6\"\/><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"8\"\/>At 40 years of age, Vozinha showed no signs of being overawed by the occasion, producing a composed display and keeping Spain at bay during the opening half hour of the contest.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"11\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Who is Vozinha?<br \/><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"13\"\/>Known simply as Vozinha, his full name is Josimar Jose Evora Dias. Born in Mindelo, Cape Verde, the goalkeeper has been a key figure for his national team for more than a decade.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"15\"\/>He made his international debut in 2012 and arrived at the World Cup with 81 caps for Cape Verde.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"19\"\/>While this is his first appearance on <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/football\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">football<\/a>&#8216;s grandest stage, Vozinha is no stranger to international competition, having represented his country in multiple Africa Cup of Nations tournaments.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"23\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>A long journey to the World Cup<br \/><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"25\"\/>Vozinha&#8217;s professional career began in 2007 in his homeland with Batuque FC before moving to CS Mindelense.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"27\"\/>His football journey then took him across several countries. He played for Progresso in Angola, Zimbru Chisinau in Moldova, Gil Vicente in Portugal, AEL Limassol in Cyprus and AS Trencin in Slovakia.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"30\"\/>Currently, he plays for Chaves in Portugal&#8217;s second division.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"32\"\/>After nearly two decades in professional football, the World Cup represents the biggest stage of his career.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"34\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>A dream realised at 40<br \/><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"36\"\/>For many footballers, the dream of playing at a World Cup fades long before they reach 40. But Vozinha&#8217;s story is a reminder that hard word and dedication can sometimes lead to extraordinary moments.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"38\"\/>From starting his professional journey in 2007 to making his World Cup debut nearly 20 years later, the Cape Verde goalkeeper has scripted one of the most inspiring stories of the tournament. <span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"40\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/football\/fifa-world-cup\/meet-vozinha-cape-verde-goalkeeper-who-became-the-second-oldest-fifa-world-cup-debutant\/articleshow\/131751017.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vozinha (Image credit: X) NEW DELHI: They say age is just a number, and Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha proved exactly that on the biggest stage of them all on Monday.The veteran shot-stopper made history by becoming the second-oldest debutant in men&#8217;s FIFA World Cup history when he took the field for Cape Verde against 2010 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}