Fresh off a breakout performance at the men’s World Cup that turned him from a little-known goalkeeper into a global sports personality, Cape Verde’s Vozinha is navigating unforeseen administrative delays that have pushed back his arrival at Chilean powerhouse club Colo Colo, even as he capitalizes on his skyrocketing fame to front a major Hollywood movie promotion.
The 40-year-old shot stopper was originally slated to join the Santiago-based club — Chile’s most decorated and successful professional football side — by Wednesday, but the team confirmed this week that routine immigration and player registration paperwork has pushed his expected arrival to Thursday. Even with the delay, Vozinha stepped into the spotlight this week anyway, suiting up in Spider-Man cosplay to headline a Sony Pictures Brazil marketing campaign for the upcoming release *Spider-Man: Brand New Day*. Posting to his Instagram account, which has exploded from fewer than 50,000 followers ahead of the World Cup to 29.6 million today, Vozinha urged his massive new global audience to catch the upcoming film.
The paperwork delay, however, is not the only challenge Colo Colo is rushing to resolve before Vozinha can take the pitch for his first competitive match. The most high-stakes issue centers on what name will appear on the back of his jersey: rules set by Chile’s National Association of Professional Football (ANFP) mandate that all registered players must use their legal surname on match kits, which would bar Vozinha from using the iconic nickname that made him a household name across the world.
Vozinha’s real legal name is Josimar José Évora Dias, but the moniker “Vozinha” — which translates to “grandma” in Portuguese, a loving tribute to the grandmother who raised him — is central to both his personal identity and the global personal brand he has built following his World Cup success. Under current ANFP rules, “nicknames, appellations, or sobriquets” are explicitly prohibited from appearing on player jerseys in domestic competition. Non-compliance carries penalties: players receive an administrative yellow card, while their clubs can face fines of up to $875 USD per violation.
To work around the regulation, Colo Colo has formally submitted a request for a special exemption to the ANFP Council of Presidents, a governing body made up of top executives from all of Chile’s top-flight professional clubs. The council is scheduled to hold a vote on the request this Friday, and the rules require a unanimous decision to grant the exemption for Vozinha to keep his famous nickname on his kit.
A secondary unresolved issue is Vozinha’s jersey number, as all traditional goalkeeper numbers are already claimed by current squad members. Argentine starting goalkeeper Fernando de Paul currently holds the No. 1 shirt, the most common number for goalkeepers across global football.
Vozinha’s arrival to Chilean football comes after a stunning World Cup run that cemented his status as one of the tournament’s biggest breakout stars. He backstopped first-time qualifier Cape Verde to a historic opening clean sheet against eventual tournament champion Spain, followed by a series of highlight-reel spectacular saves in a narrow 3-2 Round of 32 loss to Argentina.
His transfer to Colo Colo has already sent shockwaves through Chilean football, a domestic league starved of international attention after Chile’s national team failed to qualify for its third consecutive World Cup, finishing dead last in South American qualifying. Vozinha’s signing is projected to dramatically raise the global profile of both Colo Colo and Chilean football as a whole, while unlocking major new commercial opportunities for the club.
As Vozinha’s personal following has exploded, he has already been tapped as the face for multiple major advertising campaigns across global brands. The so-called “Vozinha effect” is already tangible for Colo Colo: in the weeks since announcing the signing, the club has gained nearly 70,000 new followers across its social media platforms, a large share of which come from international fans outside Chile.
“The whole world is getting to know Colo Colo better,” long-time club supporter Héctor Hermosilla said. “The world’s cameras will be on Vozinha and that’s going to be good for the club.”