Brazilians love football. Their national team is past its prime
Brazil hasn’t won a World Cup in a quarter of a century. Corruption and chaotic domestic leagues are to blame
On June 10th Brazil’s national football team won a match. Unremarkable, you might think, for the most successful team to play the game. Yet the mood afterwards in Brazil was unfamiliar: sour relief. In beating Paraguay, a football pipsqueak, the team had managed just one goal. The victory did qualify Brazil for the 2026 World Cup, but only three months after arch-rival Argentina had already become a mathematical certainty to do the same. Brazil’s team is set to qualify third in its group behind puny Ecuador, having suffered a humiliating thrashing by Argentina in a qualification match in March.
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This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Can the Seleção swagger again?”
From the June 21st 2025 edition
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Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva put Brazil on the map, but he hasn’t adapted to a changed world