Guaranteed to finish first in group B, Cape Verde is one of the surprise teams of this CAN 2024. To go as far as possible in the competition, the Blue Sharks can count on their captain, Ryan Mendes, a key player in the selection for almost fourteen years old.
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From our special correspondent in Abidjan,
Ryan Mendes will undoubtedly remember this Friday, January 19, 2024 for a long time. Scorer and man of the match against Mozambique won by his team 3-0, Cape Verde also brilliantly qualified for the round of 16 by winning their first two matches. “ We come to a tournament where there are the best teams in Africa and to have six points in a group where there is Egypt. Two matches, six points… It’s still something », sighed the Cape Verde playing master a bit dreamily as he left the locker room.
Read alsoThe calendar and results of CAN 2024
As if that were not enough, the captain of the Blue Sharks also set a new record with his selection by becoming its top scorer with 16 goals ahead of Cape Verdean legend Hèldon Ramos. It must be said that Ryan Mendes was already the most capped in the team’s history with 72 caps, just ahead of goalkeeper Vozinha. Since his first selection in 2010, the man who was presented as the potential successor to Eden Hazard when he arrived in Lille in 2012, has been to all of Cape Verde’s African Cups, from the very first in 2013 in South Africa at this Ivorian edition of 2024.
A checkered career
In the meantime, his club career has had its ups and quite a few downs. His rather convincing 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 seasons with Le Havre opened the doors to Lille where he remained for five years without ever really succeeding in establishing himself. He then left to play a season and a half at Kayserispor in Turkey before going into exile for five seasons in the United Arab Emirates before returning to Turkey in 2023 with the Istanbul club Fatih Karagümrük SK.
A jagged path that contrasts with its regularity in selection. When he debuted his first cap on August 11, 2010, he was only 20 years old and the Blue Sharks did not have much influence on the map of African football. Cape Verde has never participated in a CAN. The “Little Country” finally won the precious sesame in 2013 where he reached the quarter-finals. Mendes and his team repeated the experience in 2015, but did not make it past the first round. In 2022 in Cameroon, they stop in the round of 16.
First goal in a CAN
But this time, the Blue Sharks can have much higher ambitions. Fallers of Ghana 2-1 in the first match and easy winners of Mozambique, the Cape Verdeans, led by their captain in great form and author of his first goal in a CAN in four participations, are assured of finishing first in their group, which will give them potentially offers the possibility of facing an opponent within their reach in the round of 16.
To the end of the match against Mozambique, his teammates were full of praise for their captain. “ He is one of the oldest in our group, he is our leader, our standard bearer. He is in his fourth CAN. We are happy to have him with us and above all he is in good shape, so he helps us a lot “, explained striker Willy Semedo.
“ Lhe best captain we could have had »
Same story with Steven Moreira who also underlines the importance and involvement of Ryan Mendes in the construction of this Cape Verdean selection. “ I’m so happy for him because it’s all thanks to him who worked for so long for the selection. This is an example for us. He convinced quite a few players, myself included, to come and play for Cape Verde, recalls the right-back. He’s the best captain we could have had “.
At 34, Ryan Mendes still has the sacred fire for his country. “ I am always here, present. As soon as I put on the Cape Verde jersey, I give it my all », Explained the attacking midfielder to justify his current state of form. This is good, the competition is far from over. Before its round of 16, Cape Verde will first have to rub shoulders with Egypt in a match which will only be at stake for the Pharaohs. And if the captain of the Blue Sharks has already entered the legend of his selection as one of its greatest players, the most beautiful pages of his history with it are perhaps still to be written.