I lost my peace and quiet: Cape Verdean hero Vozinha at the cost of fame

Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha has discovered that World Cup glory comes with a price he was never willing to pay.

The 40-year-old has emerged as one of the breakout stars of this year’s tournament after producing outstanding performances to help Cape Verde reach the knockout stages in their first ever World Cup appearance.

But while his heroics against eventual champions Spain and Saudi Arabia made him a global name, the attention that followed left him longing for the quieter life he had before the tournament.

“I’ve lost my peace and quiet. I don’t have any privacy anymore,” Vozinha told The Observer.

FROM HERO TO GLOBAL STAR

Cape Verde, a nation of around 500,000 people, captured the imagination of football fans by advancing to the last 32 before eventually losing 3-2 to Argentina.

Vozinha played a major role in that run, keeping clean sheets against Spain and Saudi Arabia and earning a nomination for the Yashin Trophy, awarded to the world’s best goalkeeper.

His profile exploded almost overnight. His His Instagram followers have reportedly grown from around 56,000 before the World Cup to 28 millionbringing a whole new level of attention to his life.

An ordinary trip to a restaurant can now turn into an ordeal.

Fans approach him for photos and autographs, while others pull out their phones to film him. What would have been an ordinary trip has become an experience where he feels he has little control over his surroundings.

Attention also reached his family in Cape Verde.

Vozinha said fans now turn up at his mother’s house on a daily basis, extending attention far beyond his football career and into the private lives of those closest to him.

“I feel helpless,” he said, describing the difficulty of adjusting to the level of fame that came almost immediately.

I CHOOSE MY OLD LIFE

The goalkeeper continued his career outside of Cape Verde. In July, he left the Portuguese second division club Chaves and moved to Chilean giants Colo-Colo.

But the change in his football fortunes was accompanied by a dramatic change in his life off the pitch.

Vozinha acknowledged that fame can seem attractive from the outside, especially for people who dream of becoming famous. However, his experiences gave him a different perspective.

“A lot of people want to be famous,” he said. “But they only see the positive side.

For Vozinha, the reality was the loss of anonymity and the everyday freedom that came with it.

“If I was offered the life I have today or the life I had before, I would choose the life I had before,” he said.

His World Cup performances may have turned him into one of Cape Verde’s most respected footballers. But away from the stadium, Vozinha is now dealing with a very different consequence of becoming a global sporting figure: learning to live without the privacy he once took for granted.

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