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."