As even the most casual sports fan in Hungary knows, the country’s national team, alas, did not make it to the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Hungary were agonizingly close to making the play-offs of the qualifiers for the first time since 1997. However, an added-time goal by Ireland’s Troy Parrott denied them that opportunity.
Thus, Hungarian football fans are stuck with finding other connections between their nation and the ongoing World Cup. Previously, these were limited to referees (such as Sándor Puhl officiating the World Cup final in 1994 or Viktor Kassai being in charge of one of the semi-finals in 2010), or players from the Hungarian league (such as Muhamed Bešić making the Bosnian squad in 2014 from Ferencváros).
We have a couple of representatives of the Hungarian league this year as well. Ferencváros striker Lenny Joseph has already made two appearances for Haiti. Nadhir Benbouali, also a striker, from the reigning champions ETO FC Győr, is in the Algerian squad, but did not play in their opening against Argentina, thus only got to witness the legendary Leo Messi’s hat-trick against his side from the bench.
Midfielder Laros Duarte of Puskás Akadémia is included in the squad for World Cup debutants Cape Verde, along with his brother Deroy Duarte. However, there is another Cape Verdean player who has even more connections to Hungary—because he is a dual Hungarian citizen.
That man is none other than Ianique dos Santos Tavares, better known by his on-field mononym Stopira.
Stopira played for the Hungarian club Videoton FC Fehérvár for eleven consecutive seasons, from 2012 to 2023. In fact, the Cape Verdean player spent so much time with the Székesfehérvár-based team that it underwent multiple name changes during his stint there; we refer to the team by its current name.
Left-back Stopira made 265 appearances in the Hungarian league for Fehérvár, scoring 22 goals and making 22 assists. He became such a staple in Hungarian football that he was awarded Hungarian citizenship in December 2019, despite no longer being eligible for the Hungarian national team due to his multiple appearances in competitive games for Cape Verde.
Stopira also won two Hungarian league titles with Videoton, in 2015 and 2018.
He currently plays for SCU Torreense in the Portuguese second division, having joined the team in 2024. Despite being a second-tier team, Torreense won the Portuguese Cup this year. They beat Sporting CP in the final after extra time, with Stopira playing through the whole 120 minutes.
Stopira had already announced his retirement from the Cape Verde national team, but was eventually convinced by his teammates and coach to join them for the FIFA World Cup qualifiers one last time for the 2026 campaign.
It did work out for him: the small African island nation made it to their first FIFA World Cup in their history, and 38-year-old Stopira has made their 26-man squad for the tournament.
‘The national team coach called me, and in the end, I agreed to return. If I had missed out on this incredible experience, I would have regretted it for the rest of my life. We worked hard for moments like these, and simply qualifying for the World Cup was already a dream come true. The draw against Spain exceeded all our expectations. We knew many people saw us as a weaker team, but we came to this tournament determined to give everything we had,’ Stopira told the Hungarian sports daily Nemzeti Sport after Cape Verde tied Spain 0–0, a result that generated headlines around the world for days.
The Cape Verdean–Hungarian footballer did not play in his side's impressive draw against Spain, nor did he play in their second group game against Uruguay, which also ended in a tie (2–2).
However, he is quite easy to spot on the Cape Verdean bench in TV broadcasts, due to his red-dyed hair. Every time Hungarian fans see Stopira, they can feel some level of attachment to their fellow Hungarian citizen, included in a World Cup squad.
The next (and perhaps last) chance to see Stopira at the World Cup will be on 27 June, when Cape Verde are taking on Saudi Arabia. Amazingly, the African island nation’s team have a reasonable chance to advance to the knock-out stage with a win, or even a third draw.
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