LONDON — Josimar José Évora Dias, known as Vozinha, arrived at the London Palladium on Monday as a Yashin Trophy nominee after an unlikely career path that began in Mindelo on the Cape Verde island of São Vicente. The 40-year-old’s late-blooming career has taken him through clubs in Angola, Moldova, Portugal, Cyprus, Slovakia and Chile.
The nomination was driven by his performances at the 2026 World Cup rather than his club form. His club appearances have been scattered between Chaves in Liga Portugal 2 and a largely ceremonial role at Colo-Colo. At the World Cup, Vozinha kept a clean sheet against eventual champions Spain in Cape Verde’s opener and later pushed eventual finalists Argentina to the brink in the round of 32.
In the weeks that followed the tournament, his profile surged. His Instagram following rose from about 56,000 to roughly 27.7 million, and he was voted the starting goalkeeper for FIFA’s Dream XI by fans around the world. He still harbours personal ambitions, though the source described them as necessarily humbler than his recent achievements.
On Sunday, a game he was expected to miss while preparing for the Ballon d’Or, Vozinha finally made a league appearance for Colo-Colo and produced three notable saves in a 1-1 draw with Palestino. He then hurried to the airport in Santiago and flew, accompanied by club president Aníbal Mosa, to Madrid before boarding a private jet for London. He traveled wearing a white tracksuit and later changed into a tuxedo aboard the plane.
At the ceremony, which opened with a performance by French Montana, Vozinha signed numerous autographs and posed for photos with Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal and manager Fabio Capello. In a recent interview with The Observer, he said the burdens of sudden fame have outweighed its benefits: “A lot of people want to be famous and have a public profile, but they only see the positive side of that reality,” he told the newspaper.
