Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha has had a new species of sea slug named after him following his superb performances at the World Cup.
The 40-year-old was one of the heroes of his country’s run to the last-32 stage before they were beaten 3-2 by Argentina after extra-time.
As well as keeping a clean sheet against Spain and Saudi Arabia, Vozinha made 18 saves across the tournament and outperformed his xG against by 0.9.
He has become a cult figure over the past month and Spanish researcher Jesus Ortea has now named a new species of marine mollusk after the keeper in his published work Historias de la Biodiversidad, which translates as Biodiversity Stories.
The species, which is a small red sea slug, was unfamiliar to scientists before Ortea’s work and it has been named Aldisa vozinhai, meaning Vozinha’s sea slug.
The Aldisa vozinhai was discovered near Cuba and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean.
Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha has had a new species of sea slug named after him
The keeper was one of the stars of Cape Verde’s run to the last-32 stage of the World Cup
Speaking about the name, Ortea revealed he wanted to honour Vozinha’s ‘prominent role’ at the tournament and added that the ‘red colour of the dedicated species is a reminder of his feat’.
The ‘feat’ is in relation to his Man of the Match performance against Spain, a team who play in red and are nicknamed The Red One or La Roja.
Ortea also insisted that it was a way of him showing gratitude towards the Cape Verdean public after he was awarded the Medal of Environmental Merit there in 2023 as a result of his study of Marine Biodiversity on the island.
The biologist has previous experience in finding new species and naming them after footballers.
Back in 2019, he discovered a tiny marine sea snail that he named after former Real Madrid and Costa Rica goalkeeper Keylor Navas.
Having a species of sea slug in his honour is the latest step in Vozinha’s fame.
At the start of the Spain match in Cape Verde’s World Cup opener, he only had 50,000 followers on Instagram, but after making a memorable seven saves, that number dramatically increased, with Vozinha now having 28.6million followers.
The 40-year-old previously had a nomadic career, playing for clubs in his homeland, Moldova, Slovakia, Cyprus and Portugal’s second tier, and he has won 91 caps for Cape Verde.
