Cape Verde national football team

The Cape Verde national football team (Portuguese: Seleção nacional de futebol de Cabo Verde; recognized as Cabo Verde by FIFA) represents Cape Verde in men's international football, and is controlled by the Cape Verdean Football Federation. The team is nicknamed Tubarões Azuis (Blue Sharks in Portuguese). The national team played its first match on 19 April 1978 against Guinea, a match they lost 0–1. Following the federation's affiliation with the Confederation of African Football and FIFA in 1982, the national team entered Africa Cup of Nations qualification for the first time in 1992 and made its first FIFA World Cup qualification appearance in 2003. The team is coached by Pedro Leitão Brito.

Also known as "Creoles" (Portuguese: "Crioulos"), Cape Verde plays the majority of its home matches at the Estádio Nacional de Cabo Verde. They qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in 2013. Since then, they also appeared in the 2015, 2021 and 2023 tournaments, reaching the quarter-finals in 2013 and 2023.

Cape Verde qualified to the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 2026, drawing 0-0 in their debut match against Spain. By doing so, they became the smallest country by land area and the second least populated (after Iceland) to qualify for the World Cup, with a land area of 4,033 square kilometres (1,557 sq mi) and a population of just under 525,000 until Curaçao broke their land area and population records five weeks later when they qualified for the same tournament.