A small town with 50,000 people also wants to play in the World Cup. Can they be luckier than Iceland and Cape Verde?

In Group D of the African Group Stage of the World Cup Preliminaries, Cape Verde defeated Swaziland with 3 goals at home, overpowering Cameroon, securing first place in the group, and winning a World Cup ticket for the first time in team history.

Cape Verde is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean, about 3,000 kilometers away from Portugal. It covers an area of ​​4,033 square kilometers and has a population of only 540,000. It ranks 70th in the World Cup. Most of Cape Verde's players have completed youth training at clubs in Portugal, the Netherlands and Belgium. The combat effectiveness of these players who have received the influence of European football cannot be underestimated. Their paths to success are similar to those of Morocco and Algeria.

Before Cape Verde, the country with the smallest population in the history of the World Cup was Iceland. This island country with a population of only 300,000 participated in the 2018 World Cup and faced off against Croatia, Argentina and Nigeria in the group stage. The next team that is likely to further set the record for the smallest country participating in the World Cup is the Faroe Islands. They have defeated Montenegro and the Czech Republic in the preliminaries of this World Cup, causing huge trouble for Croatia. This "town" with a population of only 54,000 is rising rapidly.