Where the Players Come to Play:
Cape Verde's World Cup Heroes Choose Sal's Lagoon Resort
(Copyright text and images Zoe Marshall & 6hillgrovepr, reproduced with kind permission)
https://lagoonresort.com/
After the Blue Sharks stunned the planet in North America, the island of Sal has become football's favourite postcard - and The Lagoon its clubhouse
The World Cup made the world finally discover Cape Verde. Now the world is discovering where Cape Verde goes to celebrate.
On 26 July 2026, national head coach Bubista (Pedro Leitão Brito) - the man who took a nation of 600,000 people to the last 32 of a World Cup - checked into Meliá Llana Beach Resort & Spa at The Lagoon on Sal with his family for four days. No entourage, no fanfare. Just the CAF Coach of the Year, a lounger and the Atlantic.
He had earned it. Cape Verde arrived in the United States as 67th-ranked debutants and left unbeaten in the group stage, holding European champions Spain to a goalless draw, twice pegging back Uruguay in a 2-2 thriller and squeezing past Saudi Arabia to become the first World Cup newcomers since 2010 to reach the knockout rounds. Only reigning world champions Argentina could stop them, and only after extra time, 3-2 in Miami.
"To us, nothing is impossible," Bubista said that night in Houston, wrapped in his country's flag. "From the very beginning, we said one of our purposes was to show our country to the rest of the world."
The world looked. And what it found was a ten-island volcanic archipelago 350 miles off West Africa, with 350 days of sunshine a year and a beach culture that has spent two decades quietly building itself into one of the Atlantic's most polished resort destinations.
Bubista was not the only champion in residence. Earlier last month, Grupo Desportivo da Palmeira - the Sal club crowned Cape Verdean national champions for the second season running and the third time in their history, after beating Mindelense on penalties - took over Meliá Laguna Beach Resort & Spa at The Lagoon to celebrate.
It was, in every sense, a home fixture. Palmeira are Sal's team. The Lagoon is Sal's resort.
Football's unofficial embassy
Long before the Blue Sharks reached a World Cup, Linnekars had been the nation's sports bar - the room where Cape Verde watched itself become a football country, where qualification was roared home and where the World Cup run was lived match by match. Down on the sand, the Bikini Beach Club offers the other half of the equation: day beds, DJs and the kind of slow Atlantic afternoon that a professional footballer spends ten months of the year dreaming about.
Five resorts, one destination
The Lagoon is a cluster of five Meliá-operated beachfront resorts on Sal's southwest coast, between Santa Maria and Amílcar Cabral International Airport: Meliá Dunas Beach Resort & Spa and Meliá Tortuga Beach Resort & Spa for families; Meliá Llana Beach Resort & Spa (adults 18+) and Meliá Laguna Beach Resort & Spa (adults 16+) for couples; and Sol by Meliá Dunas Family Fun, with its splash park, waterslides and open-air amphitheatre.
Between them: 23 restaurants, 26 bars, three spas and a strip of Algodoeiro beach that needs no introduction to anyone who has seen a Cape Verde highlights reel.
The Lagoon Resort has seen a 45% year-on-year increase in 18-35s booking holidays since Cape Verde's World Cup 2026 heroics - a swing that tracks Expedia's own data showing searches for Cape Verde holidays up 265%, against a 55% rise in island breaks overall. Worth also noting: Expedia separately logged an 800%+ jump in US searches for Cape Verde during the tournament, and flight bookings for summer travel rose 50.3% year-on-year.
The Lagoon marks its 20th anniversary in 2027.
Cape Verde spent 40 years as a FIFA member waiting to be noticed. It took three weeks in America to change that. The players, meanwhile, already knew where to go.
Step into The Lagoon. Where the players come to play.
