Shamrock Rovers star Roberto Lopes hailed as epitome of hard work as he prepares to represent Cape Verde at AFCON
ROBERTO ‘PICO’ LOPES will run out against Ghana in the African Cup of Nations next Sunday proving again that hard work pays off.
The Shamrock Rovers defender, 31, made his Cape Verde debut in 2019, having qualified through his father.
And pal Craig Sexton said: “He’s probably the perfect example of sticking with it and working hard, and showcasing that early success isn’t the most direct route to having a proper career.
“Research shows that is the case a lot of the time and Roberto is perhaps a good case study around that.”
But Lopes is also the same player who former Bohemians goalkeeper Sexton first played alongside with Lourdes Celtic at Under-10s.
His old Belvedere manager Derek O’Brien added: “I’d know it is him the moment I see him and I haven’t met him in ten years!
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“To go on and play for Cape Verde is a great honour for him and his family. His father - a lovely man - must be so proud.”
And Pat Holmes, who took ‘Pico’ at Lourdes Celtic from Under-9s to Under-14s, said: “Roberto has never ever changed.
“He’s still as solid and still as nice a person as he was as a young boy. He’s great parents, his parents are absolutely fabulous. He’s a reflection of them, he’s well grounded.
“Roberto Lopes, if you ever wanted someone to marry your daughter, he’s your fella. He’s such a steady eddie.”
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Lopes, 31, is now preparing for his second AFCON having also been part of the Cape Verde side that reached the second round two years ago.
His career has been one of steady progress. He will go down as a League of Ireland legend while he continues to make waves with the Blue Sharks.
But Sexton remembers how, in an age group with the likes of Robbie Brady, Jeff Hendrick and Matt Doherty, he was not viewed as a superstar of the future as a teenager.
Sexton told SunSport: “He won’t mind me saying this, but there would have been a lot of better players at 13 and 14, players playing international football.
“And Roberto wouldn’t have been capped until very late on (Under-19s with Ireland).”
TOUGH COMPETITION
O’Brien added: “If you were to look at ten players and say who is the first fella who will make it, who is the second, Matt Doherty would have been sixth or seventh.
“And Pico would have been below him. There are players you see and say they will make it and then they don’t.
“With Pico we never said that, we recognised he was a good player, and you thought he had a chance.
“I’d say to players, ‘Do you want to play for Lollipop United or do you want to play for Manchester United?’ And they’d be looking at you.
“You just have to aim high. It was an inner thing within him, he was really self-determined.”
Holmes saw that from the moment he moved from Lourdes Celtic’s academy to join his Under-9 team.
YOUNG TALENT
He told SunSport: “Roberto has a fabulous pair of feet. He played centre half for me because he had that vision because he’s such a clever lad.
“In pre-season, we used to do programmes about foot coordination so it wasn’t about who was the quickest sprinter.
“Roberto would win those time trials because he was focused and he didn’t make mistakes.”
O’Brien was a rival with Belvedere then and remembers watching Lopes and hoping to entice him to move to Fairview Park.
The Belvo manager said: “At 13s, I went to the Kennedy Cup. I knew of Matt Doherty from Swords and hoped to bring him in and there was a goalkeeper at Lourdes we wanted too.
“I thought if we could get the Lourdes goalkeeper, we might get their centre half as well. We got the ‘keeper, who was Craig Sexton, but Pico wouldn’t move. He was loyal to his club.”
But O’Brien kept getting reminders that Lopes was a player he wished was in his team.
He said: “We didn’t pester him like you sometimes hear of clubs doing, but we did ask him to join a few more times.
“Everytime we played them, he was the guy getting in the bloody way of the ball!”
Ultimately, Lopes did leave Lourdes when his team broke up - the trials and tribulations of schoolboy football - though he initially went to Home Farm for two years.
But O’Brien finally got to work with him when he joined Belvo at Under-17 level to join a side that included Sexton, Keith Buckley, Kevin Feely and Chris Forrester.
All five would go on to join Bohemians - Doherty joined six months earlier - though O’Brien said that, while talented, Lopes was still an unpolished diamond at that point.
DEFENSIVE MIND
O’Brien said: “He was a bit agricultural I suppose. I’d say, ‘Pico, you win the ball but you’ve got to play the ball, you’ve got to pass it. We cultured him a bit.”
Sexton added: “Roberto was always a defender. He played in midfield a bit but you knew where he’d end up. He just wanted to head it, block it, get in the way.
“I suppose he’s like an old school defender in that way as there are not as many around like that.
“But, and Roberto won’t mind me saying this, he worked at everything and wanted to improve.
“I can still remember at Bohs how he’s stay back after training to work on his long passing, which wasn’t his strong point.
“We were only kids at Bohs at the time, breaking through, and it was in his head that’s what he needed to improve on.
“It just showed his attitude and mentality to be a leader and winner. He was also a late developer physically, which is weird to say when you see the shape he is in now.”
DIFFERENT BUILD
Holmes reckons it was his small stature in his early teens which is why he was underrated at the time and did not get the Ireland caps, he believes, Lopes deserved.
He explained: “He was slightly built when young. All the successful teams then looked for fellas with talent but you had to be big and strong.
“But he didn’t get physically big until he went to Home Farm. I was so happy when he did (get capped at Under-19 level) because, finally, the penny dropped with people.”
By then, Lopes was making inroads at Bohemians where he went from rising star to leader and captain before transferring to Shamrock Rovers at the end of the 2016 season.
Sexton has seen how he has grown into it and is now a loud voice on the pitch which he never was as a teenager.
He explained: “He was a good bit of craic in the dressing room and funny. But there were a lot of big personalities there, and Derek our manager was mad too.
“So it wouldn’t mark you down as a recluse if you went below the radar in that dressing room! I was a talker as a goalkeeper, it was my thing, but he was quiet.”
O’Brien added: “He was quiet but effective. The leadership has come with age and experience and you can see he has that now.”
Sexton continued: “He got in the Bohs team, got his move (to Rovers) and he’s come on massively since then.
“That team play football, they’re great to watch, and he’s part of that team. He doesn’t look out of place.
“I was only talking to him last week and he reminded me he is off with Cape Verde now and I’ll have to get eyes on the games.
“They’ve got Egypt in the last group game, Roberto against Mo Salah…how amazing is that!”