Goalkeeper Vozinha helped Cape Verde reach this year’s World Cup round of 32 with clean sheets against Spain and Saudi Arabia, but the 40-year-old says he is struggling to cope with the sudden fame.
Cape Verde, a collection of islands near Africa's west coast with a population of some 500,000, surprisingly reached the knockout stage in their first appearance at the global tournament before losing 3-2 to Argentina.
Vozinha, whose performances earned him a Yashin Trophy nomination for the year's best goalkeeper, has become a global star, with his Instagram follower count ballooning from 56,000 to 28 million people.
"I’ve lost my peace and tranquillity. I no longer have any privacy," Vozinha told Britain's Observer newspaper.
"I go to a restaurant, and there’s always someone who wants to take a photo with me or asks me for an autograph. Or worse, someone's filming me ... I don’t think there’s anything I can do about it."
His family members have also been affected, with fans showing up daily at his mother's house in Cape Verde.
"I’m not there, so I can’t help them,” said Vozinha, who left Portuguese second-tier club Chaves to join Chile's Colo-Colo in July.
"A lot of people want to be famous ... but they only see the positive side of that reality. To be honest, if I were offered the life I have today or the life I had before, I’d choose the one I had before."
