To nearly everyone in Ireland Pico Lopes is a homecoming hero... but one neighbour since childhood recalls the annoying thing the World Cup star did that he never liked

Published: 22:40, 4 July 2026 | Updated: 22:40, 4 July 2026 A hero’s welcome awaits World Cup star Roberto ‘Pico’ Lopes when he returns to the estate that partied ‘like it’s 1990’ over the past three weeks. The dream is over for Pico and Cape Verde, who went down fighting early Saturday morning to Argentina and Lionel Messi, but the memories will last forever in Ashling Close, the close-knit cul-de-sac in Crumlin where he and his brothers were raised and his family still live. As they did for all of Cape Verde’s games, a group of around 50 neighbours and friends gathered to watch the fixture on the very patch of grass where Pico honed his football skills as a youngster. Pico’s mother Judie sorted the loan of a projector and screen when an outdoor watch party was mooted before the opening game, and supporters of all ages showed up with furniture and refreshments for each of the four matches. Change the angle of the projector slightly and the game would be beamed onto the side of the Lopes family home. Neighbour and friend Eamon Purdy told the Irish Mail on Sunday he was ‘devastated’ after Friday’s game, but ‘very, very proud’ of the first player from an Irish club to play in a World Cup. ‘Of course’ they will throw a homecoming celebration, he said, with ‘fireworks and everything’. He described a sense of community in the small estate – decked out in Cape Verde flags – that ‘isn’t too common nowadays’, with Judie ‘famous for baking, throwing cakes around and stuff’. A hero’s welcome awaits World Cup star Roberto ‘Pico’ Lopes when he returns to the estate that partied ‘like it’s 1990’ over the past three weeks. The older neighbours have been watching Lopes play since he lined out for nearby Lourdes Celtic, then for St James’s Gaels GAA, which ‘has stood him well’ Mr Purdy says, before his League of Ireland journey began. Mr Purdy’s wife Tracey Keogh babysat the World Cup star and his brothers when they were children. ‘When [Pico’s father] Carlos would be home [from working as a chef on ships] and they’d get a very rare night out, I would be over there minding the three boys,’ she explained. ‘It was just constant playing football, constantly out on the road or on the grass, and if not, they were around at Lourdes Celtic. ‘I’m not just saying this, but they are kids that were reared really well. I don’t think there was ever trouble.’ Only Dave Barry-Mahony, a neighbour of 33 years, can muster a faintly negative memory: ‘The only thing I didn’t like about him was, sometimes he used to use my bleeding driveway as goalposts,’ he laughed. ‘But they were lovely young fellas. He’s done himself proud, he’s done the nation proud, he’s done us very proud.’ With Cape Verde’s steely credentials established across the group phase, there was little detectable tension as the game kicked off at 11pm – even with their neighbour about to be tested against the man regarded by many as the best of all time in Lionel Messi. The great man was booed in jest before the game, while the locals’ own great man was roared on every time the ball came near him or his face appeared on screen. And that was quite a bit, as the 34-year-old centre back put in another unflappable shift that included a vital clearance late in normal time. As he left the field for half-time, residents of the quiet cul-de-sac were treated to the surreal sight of the boy next door exchanging verbals with Messi. It later emerged the diminutive Argentinian told Lopes he was being a little too handsy in his defending – and indeed he seemed to avoid the Dubliner’s orbit for most of the game. When Cape Verde’s two goals came, particularly Sidney Lopes Cabral’s stunning extra time equaliser, roars went up to match an Ireland World Cup goal in any other part of the country. Residents of the quiet cul-de-sac were treated to the surreal sight of the boy next door exchanging verbals with Messi. Some looked on in disbelief while at least one of the dozen or so children succumbed to sleep as the impossible began to look feasible and Cape Verde brought it to extra time and towards a penalty shoot-out. Hearts finally sank deep into extra time when the ball ricocheted off Pico’s centre-back partner Diney and into his own net, to finally sink the Blue Sharks. But it wasn’t enough to dim hearty cheers when RTÉ showed a clip from the Ashling Close watch party, or when the camera in Miami Stadium zoomed into Pico’s wife Leah and their son Diego. ‘It’s like it’s 1990 again,’ said Sheena Heavey, referring to Ireland’s first World Cup, when our path to the second round was identical to Cape Verde’s. ‘There’s 16 houses, six of them are rented, so everybody else is through-and-through living here. ‘It’s nice to see the little kids, who are children of children who grew up here.’ Senator and former RTÉ sports presenter Evanne Ní Chuilinn, who lives around the corner, told the MoS she had been doing a local park run with the ‘really unassuming’ Judie for ‘months and months and months’ before she revealed herself as Pico’s mother. Six months ago, Judie said her son was going to the World Cup. ‘I was like, “Judie, you’re either Pico’s mam or you’ve lost your marbles.” It was a very funny moment.’ The senator continued: ‘Judie was telling me that when this development was first built, she picked that house because she saw the patch of land. She thought, “Oh, if I ever have children and they want to play football, I’ll have the patch of land beside the house.” ‘So you couldn’t write this story.’ Troy Dunne and family have been on the estate for around 10 years. He was only on ‘say hello’ terms with many of his neighbours until the watch parties began, he said. ‘That’s been one of the best things nearly, is bringing us all together. And you’re never going to forget this. Mr Dunne conceded it has been ‘very strange’ watching his neighbour – or, more accurately now, neighbour’s son – on the World Stage. ‘It’s almost like seeing somebody you know picking up an Oscar or something.’ Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.