Piers Morgan faces backlash after admitting he had never heard of Cape Verde

Piers Morgan sparked a wave of social media criticism after admitting he had never heard of Cape Verde before their debut appearance at the World Cup, in which the African island nation pushed reigning champions Argentina all the way to extra time before losing 3-2.

Cape Verde, a nation of around 500,000 people, were making their first-ever appearance at a World Cup finals. They opened their campaign with a 0-0 draw against Spain, then secured back-to-back draws with Uruguay and Saudi Arabia to finish second in Group H and advance to the knockout rounds.

In the round of 32, they twice came from behind against Argentina — levelling in normal time and again in extra time to make it 2-2 — before an own goal in the second half of extra time ended their tournament. The performance earned widespread admiration from fans and pundits.

Following the match, Morgan wrote on X: “I’d never heard of Cape Verde before this World Cup, now I will never forget them. Congrats to the whole squad, and especially the 40yr-old goalkeeper @vozinhapr whose heroics earned him 20m followers on Instagram. Fabulous story.”

The admission drew immediate pushback. “Seriously?? Cape Verde is a holiday and wedding destination,” one user replied. Another wrote: “You’ve never heard of Cape Verde yet you are a journalist. A sports enthusiast. Speaks lots about you.” A third user noted Cape Verde’s prior profile in the sport: “I had known them the first time they played and drew against Ronaldo’s Portugal and then beat Portugal in their second attempt.”

Morgan responded to the criticism with: “So many Cape Verde ‘experts’ on here today,” accompanied by two laughing emojis — a retort that drew further rebuke. “Don’t have to be an expert,” one user replied, “just follow world football competitions and you’d have heard of them.”

Cape Verde were the second-smallest nation by population at the tournament, behind only Caribbean island Curacao, whose 158,000 residents saw their side exit at the group stage.