Vozinha was one of the standout performers in this summer’s World Cup, and now the Cape Verde goalkeeper has been recognised by having a newly discovered species named in his honour.
A new species of marine mollusk has been named after the 40-year-old by the Spanish researcher Jesus Ortea in his published work Historias de la Bioadversidad (translated into English as Biodiversity Stories).
Ortea made the discovery of the new species — a small sea slug of red appearance and about four millimeters that was, until his published work, unknown by science — and has named it Aldisa vozinhai (in English, Vozinha’s sea slug).
The species was discovered in Caribbean near Havana, Cuba and the island of Guadeloupe during Ortea’s research and his work was published to coincide with the World Cup, including Vozinha’s man of the match performance in Cape Verde’s surprise 0-0 opening draw against European champions Spain as he made seven crucial saves.
Ortea underlined the choice of his name was his way of thanking the people of Cape Verde, a nation where he was awarded the Medal of Environmental Merit in 2023, which was a recognition of his contributions to the study of Marine Biodiversity on the archipelago.
This is not the first time that Ortea, a professor of Animal Biology and Zoology at the University of Oviedo, has named newly-discovered species after a footballer. In 2019, his discovery of a species of tiny marine sea snail led him to name them after Keylor Navas, the former goalkeeper of Real Madrid and Costa Rica.
Vozinha, whose two-decade career has included spells at club teams in Cape Verde, Moldova, Slovakia, Cyprus and Portugal, became the oldest player to make an appearance in a nation’s debut World Cup game at the age of 40 years and 12 days old.
The 91-time Cape Verde international has gained significant traction since his tournament debut. His Instagram account before the match had 50,000 followers but, at the time of writing, it has grown to 28.5 million.
Vozinha played in each of Cape Verde’s remaining three games at the tournament, including keeping another clean sheet against Saudi Arabia as the archipelagic country made it through to the last 32-stage.
The goalkeeper once again impressed in Cape Verde’s 3-2 after extra-time loss to defending champions Argentina, a match in which he made seven saves.
-The Athletic