The name of the Cape Verde national team goalkeeper was given to a new species of sea slug

Jesus Ortea, professor emeritus at the University of Oviedo (Spain), discovered this small, bright red mollusk creature in the Caribbean and chose to publish his research at the same time as the World Cup.

Ortea said he wanted to acknowledge the "outstanding role" of goalkeeper Josimar Dias, or Vozinha, and also mentioned the match with this opponent who is considered a candidate to win the 2026 World Cup.

With a population of only 530,000 people, Cape Verde is the smallest country participating in the World Cup knockout round. Even though it was their first time participating in the biggest football tournament on the planet, in the round of 16, they caused many difficulties for defending champion Argentina, drawing in two main periods and only losing after two extra periods with a final score of 2-3.

Previously, thanks to Vozinha's excellent performance, Cape Verde won its first point at the World Cup in a goalless draw with European champion Spain, known as La Roja (The Red Team) after its traditional shirt color.

Vozinha has played for the Cape Verde national team since 2012, playing for GD Chaves Club in Liga Portugal 2 from 2024. In the match against Spain, this 40-year-old goalkeeper had a series of saves with 27 shots from the opponent (7 shots towards the goal) to keep a clean sheet.

His performance in that match helped his reputation explode, the number of followers on Instagram skyrocketed from 45,000 to 11.5 million in just two days. "This is crazy," Vozinha wrote on Instagram when he saw the sudden number on his account.

According to Reuters, Ortea conducted extensive research on the waters surrounding Cape Verde and was awarded the Order of Merit by the island nation in 2023.

BBC said, this is not the first time this 75-year-old biologist has shown his passion for football at work. He once named a newly discovered creature in Costa Rica after Keylor Navas, a former goalkeeper of the country's team who also played for Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Nottingham Forest. Another small creature with the same color as Sporting Gijon Club (Spain) is also named after former striker Quini.