Brazil national football team

• 1. Introduction

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  The Brazil national football team, known at home as the Seleção, has lifted the FIFA World Cup five times - more than any other nation on earth. But the journey from a 1914 kickabout against an English club to becoming the only team to appear in every World Cup without ever needing a qualifying playoff is a story full of heartbreak, reinvention, and moments that stopped a country cold.

  How did a team that wore white shirts lose so badly that an entire nation abandoned the color? What made the 1970 squad so special that commentators still call it the greatest national side in history? And what is a Maracanazo? This documentary follows Brazil through triumph, collapse, and the long years between, searching for the soul of the most watched football team on earth.

• 2. The Birth of the Seleção

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  Brazil's first recorded international match, in 1914, was played between a combined Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo select side and the English club Exeter City, at the Fluminense FC stadium. Brazil won 2-0, with goals credited to Oswaldo Gomes and Osman Medeiros, though some accounts claim the result was a 3-3 draw. The uncertainty itself says something about how unofficial those early days felt.

  Two years later, Brazil played its first matches against Chile and Uruguay, and entered the South American Championship for the first time. They finished third in both the 1916 and 1917 editions. Arthur Friedenreich's goalscoring led them to the title in the 1919 edition, held on home soil in Brazil. They won again in 1922, also at home, and collected runners-up and third-place finishes in the surrounding years.

  By 1930, Brazil stepped onto the global stage at the first FIFA World Cup, held in Uruguay. A defeat to Yugoslavia and a win over Bolivia brought elimination at the group stage. In 1934, they fell in the first round to Spain. At the 1938 World Cup in France, Brazil reached the semi-finals before losing to eventual champions Italy, then claimed third place by defeating Sweden. They were the only South American team in that tournament; the rest boycotted, protesting that Europe had hosted the event twice in a row. Those early campaigns planted the habit of showing up when others would not.

• 3. Maracanazo

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  After World War II left Europe unable to host, Brazil's bid for the 1950 FIFA World Cup went unopposed. The tournament format was unlike any before or since: a final round-robin group rather than a knockout final decided the champion.

  Brazil moved through the group stage with authority, beating Mexico 4-0 at the Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro, drawing 2-2 with Switzerland at the Pacaembu in São Paulo, and returning to the Maracanã to defeat Yugoslavia 2-0. In the final round, they thrashed Sweden 7-1 and Spain 6-1. All Brazil needed in the last game was a win or a draw against Uruguay.

  Uruguay won 2-1. The defeat carried a name almost immediately: the Maracanazo. Brazil entered a period of national mourning. The white uniform the team had worn that day was abandoned entirely. The loss cast a long shadow over Brazilian football that would not fully lift until the 1958 World Cup in Sweden.

• 4. Yellow Shirts and Golden Years

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  A newspaper competition, organized by the Correio da Manhã with permission from the Brazilian Sports Confederation, asked the public to design a new kit using all four colors of the Brazilian flag. The winning entry came from Aldyr Garcia Schlee, a nineteen-year-old from Pelotas: a yellow jersey with green trim, blue shorts with white trim. Those colors were first worn in March 1954 against Chile and have been used ever since.

  The new kit debuted at the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, where Brazil also wore a new attitude on the pitch. In the quarter-finals they faced Hungary in what became known as the "Battle of Berne", one of the ugliest matches in football history, and lost 4-2.

  The kit's true moment arrived four years later in Sweden. At the 1958 World Cup, coach Vicente Feola added Zito, Garrincha and a seventeen-year-old Pelé to the starting line-up for the third group match against the Soviet Union. In his biography of Garrincha, Ruy Castro described the opening three minutes of that match as "the greatest three minutes in the history of football". Brazil won 2-0. Pelé scored the only goal in the quarter-final against Wales, then Brazil eliminated France 5-2 in the semi-final. They beat Sweden 5-2 in the final to claim their first World Cup, becoming the first nation to win the tournament outside their own continent. Pelé called the moment "a nation coming of age".

  Four years later in Chile, Pelé was injured in the second group match and missed the rest of the tournament. Brazil won anyway, beating Czechoslovakia 3-1 in the final to claim back-to-back titles. The blue second-kit shirts worn in that 1958 final had an accidental origin: Sweden also wore yellow, and as the home side Sweden claimed the right to wear their color, forcing Brazil - who traveled with no second kit - to hurriedly buy blue shirts and sew on their own badges.

• 5. Mexico 1970 - The Pinnacle

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  At the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, Brazil fielded what is widely regarded as the finest World Cup squad in history. Pelé led a side that included captain Carlos Alberto Torres, Jairzinho, Tostão, Gérson and Rivellino.

  Brazil won all six of their matches. The group stage brought a 4-1 win over Czechoslovakia, a 1-0 victory over England despite a famous save by goalkeeper Gordon Banks, and a 3-2 defeat of Romania. In the quarter-finals they beat Peru 4-2, then Uruguay 3-1 in the semi-finals, and finally defeated Italy 4-1 in the final. Jairzinho scored in every single match of the tournament, a feat no player had achieved before or has repeated since; he finished with seven goals. Pelé ended with four.

  Because Brazil were lifting the Jules Rimet trophy for the third time, the rules allowed them to keep it permanently. A replacement trophy was commissioned. The Jules Rimet trophy was stolen from the Confederação Brasileira de Futebol in 1983 and was never recovered; the CBF was later awarded a replica. Brazil would wait 24 years before claiming the replacement.

• 6. The Dry Spells

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  Without Pelé and the other pillars of 1970, Brazil at the 1974 World Cup in West Germany finished fourth, losing 2-0 to the Netherlands and then 1-0 to Poland in the third-place play-off. At the 1978 tournament in Argentina, they remained unbeaten across seven games but still finished third, displaced from the final because Argentina defeated Peru 6-0 in a match held later the same day - a result that prompted accusations of match-fixing which were never proven.

  The 1982 team in Spain is remembered by many as perhaps the greatest team never to win a World Cup. A midfield of Sócrates, Zico, Falcão and Toninho Cerezo dismantled opponents in the first group stage, only to lose 3-2 to Italy in the second group stage in Barcelona. Brazilians call that match "Sarriá's Tragedy", after the name of the stadium. At the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, Brazil eliminated Poland 4-0 in the round of 16, then met a Michel Platini-led France in the quarter-finals. The game ended 1-1; Zico missed a penalty in regular time; the shootout went against Brazil 4-3.

  Brazil hosted and won the 1989 Copa América, ending a 19-year stretch without an official title. But the 1990 World Cup in Italy brought a 1-0 loss to Argentina in the round of 16 in Turin, a goal scored by Claudio Caniggia from a Diego Maradona pass. In the 1993 Copa América in Ecuador, Argentina knocked Brazil out again on penalties. And in qualifying for the 1994 World Cup, Brazil lost a qualifier to Bolivia 2-0 in La Paz - the first time they had ever lost a qualifying match. Romário scored twice against Uruguay at the Maracanã to secure their place in the tournament.

• 7. The Fourth and Fifth Stars

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  At the 1994 World Cup in the United States, a side led by Romário and Bebeto in attack, with Dunga as captain in midfield and Cláudio Taffarel in goal, ended the 24-year wait. Brazil defeated Russia 2-0, beat Cameroon 3-0, tied Sweden 1-1, beat the United States 1-0 at Stanford Stadium on the 4th of July, edged the Netherlands 3-2 in Dallas in the quarter-finals, then defeated Sweden again 1-0 in the semi-final at Pasadena's Rose Bowl. The final against Italy, also in Pasadena, ended goalless after extra time in searing heat. Roberto Baggio missed Italy's final penalty and Brazil were champions. FourFourTwo magazine later labelled the 1994 team "unloved" in Brazil because of their pragmatic defensive style, even though Romário's individual contributions are widely credited with both securing qualification and winning the tournament.

  The 1998 World Cup in France brought Brazil to the final as defending champions, but Ronaldo suffered a convulsive fit only hours before kick-off. A starting line-up without him was released to a stunned world media; he then pleaded to play and was reinstated by the coach, but gave a below-par performance as Zidane's France won 3-0.

  At the 2002 World Cup, co-hosted by South Korea and Japan, Brazil topped their group with nine points. Ronaldinho scored from a free-kick from 40 yards out to beat England 2-1 in the quarter-finals, though he was also sent off in that match. Ronaldo scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Germany in the final in Yokohama, and won the Golden Shoe as the tournament's top scorer with eight goals. Brazil received the Laureus World Sports Award for Team of the Year. The trio of Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho were nicknamed the "Three R's" throughout the campaign.

• 8. The Mineirazo and After

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  Brazil hosted the 2014 World Cup, and the tournament began promisingly. Neymar scored twice and Oscar added a third in a 3-1 comeback win over Croatia in the opening match. In the quarter-final against Colombia, Neymar was stretchered off after a challenge by Zuniga fractured a vertebra, ending his tournament. What followed against Germany in the semi-final at the Mineirão stadium became the team's biggest ever World Cup defeat: a 7-1 loss, their first home defeat in a competitive match since 1975. Brazilians named it the Mineirazo, connecting it deliberately to the Maracanazo of 1950. In that match, Miroslav Klose scored to become the all-time leading scorer at FIFA World Cups with 16 goals. Brazil lost the third-place play-off 3-0 to the Netherlands, and manager Luiz Felipe Scolari resigned.

  A 2016 Copa América group-stage exit - the first since 1987 - cost Dunga his second stint as manager. Under Tite, who took over on the 14th of June 2016, the team reached the quarter-finals of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups but fell each time. The 2019 Copa América at home brought a ninth continental title, a 3-1 win over Peru in the final, with the team conceding only once all tournament. The 2021 Copa América final, also at the Maracanã, saw Argentina win 1-0 - the first time Brazil had failed to win the Copa América on home soil.

  On the 6th of June 2013, Brazil were ranked 22nd in the FIFA World Rankings, their lowest ever recorded position. The federation has cycled through managers since Tite's resignation after 2022: Ramon Menezes, Fernando Diniz, and Dorival Júnior each served briefly before the CBF appointed Italian manager Carlo Ancelotti. Brazil qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup with a 1-0 victory against Paraguay on the 10th of June 2025, setting up a return to the tournament with the first replacement-era World Cup trophy still waiting to be won.