50 Fun Facts About Brazil National Football Team

What color were Brazil's shirts before a painful 1950 World Cup defeat led to the famous yellow kit?

White shirts with blue collars were blamed as unpatriotic after the loss, so a newspaper ran a contest for a kit in the flag's colors, won by teenager Aldyr Schlee.

Which neighbor beat hosts Brazil in the 1950 World Cup decider, plunging the country into mourning?

Uruguay won 2–1 thanks to a late Alcides Ghiggia goal, silencing a record crowd of more than 170,000 in Rio de Janeiro.

Which country beat hosts Brazil 7–1 in a 2014 World Cup semi-final with four goals in six minutes?

Germany led 5–0 after just 29 minutes, and the final score remains Brazil's heaviest World Cup defeat.

Which World Cup distinction, unbroken since 1930, does Brazil's national team alone hold?

Playing in every edition since the first is a record only Brazil holds, and the team has never needed a play-off to qualify.

Pelé, a World Cup champion at just 17, remains the only person in history to achieve which feat?

Three wins as a player, in 1958, 1962 and 1970, is a record nobody has matched. Injury ended Pelé's 1962 tournament early, and his medal for that title arrived only in 2007.

Which World Cup prize did Brazil keep for good in 1970, only for thieves to steal it in 1983?

The Jules Rimet Trophy became Brazil's to keep after a third title, but it was stolen from the Brazilian federation in 1983 and has never been recovered.

Which captain of Brazil's celebrated 1982 World Cup team was also a qualified medical doctor?

Sócrates earned his medical degree in 1977 while already a professional player, and he practiced medicine in Ribeirão Preto after retiring.

Which striker, nicknamed O Fenômeno, scored both goals when Brazil won the 2002 World Cup final?

Ronaldo's two goals capped a comeback from career-threatening injuries, and his eight goals in the tournament earned him the Golden Boot.

Which small bird, yellow like the famous home shirt, gives Brazil's national team a popular nickname?

Canary is the bird behind Canarinho, 'Little Canary', and Brazilians call the yellow shirt itself the Camisa Canarinho.

Pelé's real first name was chosen by his parents in honor of which American inventor?

Thomas Edison was the inspiration, though the parents dropped the 'i' to make Edson. A birth certificate error means many documents show the name as Edison.

What was Brazil striker Bebeto miming in a 1994 World Cup goal celebration copied around the world?

Rocking a baby was his tribute to a son born two days earlier, and two teammates lined up beside him to join in.

Dunga, Brazil's 1994 World Cup captain, is nicknamed after the Portuguese name of which Disney dwarf?

Dopey is Dunga in Portuguese, a name an uncle gave him for being so small as a child. It stuck even after he grew.

Brazil dedicated its 1994 World Cup win to which Formula One champion, killed weeks earlier?

Ayrton Senna, a three-time world champion, had died in a crash at the San Marino Grand Prix two and a half months before the final.

Which Rio de Janeiro stadium, opened for the 1950 World Cup, once held crowds of more than 170,000?

The Maracanã opened in 1950 but was not fully finished until 1965, and it went on to stage a second World Cup final in 2014.

What does each star above the crest on Brazil's national team shirt represent?

A World Cup title earns one star. Brazil added three above the crest after its third win in 1970, and other champions later copied the idea.

Teenager Pelé scored twice as Brazil won the 1958 World Cup final against which host nation?

Sweden lost 5–2 near Stockholm as Brazil took its first crown and became the first country to win a World Cup outside its own continent.

Which country did Brazil beat in both the 1970 and 1994 World Cup finals?

Italy lost 4–1 in 1970 and on penalties in 1994, the first World Cup final ever decided by a shoot-out.

Which country beat Brazil 3–0 in the 1998 World Cup final and knocked them out again in 2006?

France won the final on home soil with two Zinedine Zidane headers, then beat Brazil 1–0 in a 2006 quarter-final.

Which country faces Brazil in the Superderby of the Americas, a rivalry first played in 1914?

Argentina won that first meeting 3–0, and FIFA has described the pairing as the essence of soccer rivalry.

In which country did Brazil win the 2002 final, at the first World Cup ever held in Asia?

Japan hosted the final after sharing the tournament with a neighbor, and Brazil lifted the trophy having won all seven of its games.

Which winger, born with one leg shorter than the other, led Brazil to the 1962 World Cup?

Garrincha, whose nickname means wren, was the outstanding player of the tournament, and Brazil never lost a match when he and Pelé played together.

Which striker won the Golden Ball when Brazil ended a 24-year World Cup drought in 1994?

Romário scored five goals at the tournament, and two decades later he was elected to Brazil's Senate with a record vote for the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Whose long free kick for Brazil sailed over England goalkeeper David Seaman at the 2002 World Cup?

Ronaldinho scored from about 40 yards to put Brazil 2–1 ahead in the quarter-final, then was sent off seven minutes later for a foul.

Which Brazil star fractured a vertebra against Colombia in a 2014 World Cup quarter-final?

Neymar was kneed in the back and carried off on a stretcher, so Brazil went into its semi-final, the 7–1 defeat, without its star forward.

Which Brazil right-back is the only player to appear in three consecutive World Cup finals?

Cafu played in the 1994, 1998 and 2002 finals, and as captain raising the trophy in 2002 he shouted a declaration of love to his wife, Regina.

Which Brazil playmaker, a World Cup winner in 2002, won the 2007 Ballon d'Or while at AC Milan?

Kaká took the award months after Milan beat Liverpool to win the Champions League; at the 2002 World Cup he had played just 25 minutes as a 20-year-old.

Which Brazil player bent a 1997 free kick so sharply that a ball boy ten yards wide of goal ducked?

Roberto Carlos struck it from about 40 yards while the goalkeeper stood still, and in 2010 scientists published a paper explaining the ball's path.

Which nickname for soccer did a 1977 memoir by Pelé help spread around the world?

The beautiful game is in the title of his autobiography, My Life and the Beautiful Game, and Pelé is credited with making the phrase a synonym for the sport.

What did Brazil's government declare Pelé in 1961 to stop foreign clubs from signing him?

A national treasure could not be transferred out of the country, so Pelé stayed with Santos until he retired from Brazilian club soccer in 1974.

Which South American championship did Brazil first win in 1919 and win again as hosts in 2019?

The Copa América is the oldest continental soccer competition in existence, and Brazil's 1919 title was driven by the goals of Arthur Friedenreich.

Which prize, never before won by Brazil's men, did the team finally claim on home soil in 2016?

The Olympic gold medal came after three silvers, in 1984, 1988 and 2012, and Brazil kept the title at the next Games.

Which now-defunct FIFA tournament for continental champions did Brazil win a record four times?

The Confederations Cup went to Brazil in 1997, 2005, 2009 and 2013, the last with a 3–0 win over world champions Spain, before FIFA abolished the event.

Which acrobatic move is Brazil's 1938 World Cup star Leônidas among those credited with inventing?

The bicycle kick delighted crowds at the 1938 tournament, where he was called the Black Diamond; a Brazilian chocolate bar was later named Diamante Negro after him.

Brazil won the 1994 World Cup final at which California stadium, better known for college football?

The Rose Bowl in Pasadena was the largest stadium of the tournament, and Brazil had already won its semi-final there four days earlier.

In which city, at the Mineirão stadium, did hosts Brazil lose 7–1 in a 2014 World Cup semi-final?

Belo Horizonte saw the end of a 62-match unbeaten home run in competitive games, and the defeat is known in Brazil as the Mineiraço after the stadium.

Which winger of Brazil's 1958 team became the first person to win the World Cup as player and coach?

Mário Zagallo coached the 1970 champions at 38 and was assistant coach when Brazil won again in 1994, giving him a hand in four of the five titles.

Which coach, nicknamed Big Phil, won the 2002 World Cup with Brazil and returned for 2014?

Luiz Felipe Scolari took over with Brazil in danger of missing the 2002 tournament, then managed Portugal before a second spell that brought the 7–1 loss.

Whose hat-trick knocked Brazil's much-loved 1982 team out of the World Cup in a 3–2 classic?

Paolo Rossi had only just returned from a two-year ban over a betting scandal, and Brazilians named the defeat the Sarrià tragedy after the Barcelona stadium.

Brazil had never lost a World Cup qualifier until a 1993 defeat at high altitude in which country?

Bolivia won 2–0 in La Paz, but Brazil recovered to qualify and went on to win the 1994 tournament.

In which country did Brazil retain the World Cup in 1962, beating Czechoslovakia in the final?

Chile staged the tournament two years after the most powerful earthquake ever recorded struck the country, and Brazil won the final 3–1 in Santiago.

Which victory ritual is Brazil's 1958 captain Bellini credited with starting for photographers?

Lifting the trophy high above his head gave the photographers a clear shot, and once the pictures went around the world, captains everywhere copied the pose.

Which winger, nicknamed the Hurricane, scored in every game Brazil played at the 1970 World Cup?

Jairzinho scored in all six games, final included, and more than half a century later no one else had both scored in and won every match at a World Cup.

Which Brazil goalkeeper made shoot-out saves in the 1994 World Cup final and a 1998 semi-final?

Taffarel stopped one kick in the 1994 final and two in the 1998 semi-final; his spring off the ground was put down to playing beach volleyball as a boy.

Which Brazil striker became the first player to score in two World Cup finals, in 1958 and 1962?

Vavá scored twice in the 1958 final and once in 1962, and nobody else scored in back-to-back finals until Kylian Mbappé in 2022.

Brazil's national team traces its first match to a 1914 game against which touring English club?

Exeter City faced a select team of Rio and São Paulo players at the Fluminense club's ground, a match that records treat as Brazil's first-ever game.

Which São Paulo-born son of a Scottish railway engineer is called the father of soccer in Brazil?

Charles Miller came home from school in England in 1894 with two soccer balls and a set of rules packed in his suitcase.

Which country beat Brazil in the 1954 World Cup game so violent it is called the Battle of Berne?

Hungary won the quarter-final 4–2 with three players sent off, and the fighting carried on in the dressing rooms after the final whistle.

Which goalkeeper did Brazilians blame for decades after the home defeat in the 1950 World Cup decider?

Moacir Barbosa said in 2000 that the longest prison sentence in Brazil was 30 years, yet he had been paying for that one goal for 50.

Which Brazilian ran the national federation for three World Cup wins, then led FIFA from 1974 to 1998?

João Havelange had swum for Brazil at the 1936 Berlin Games, and during his FIFA presidency the World Cup doubled in size from 16 teams to 32.

In which stadium did Brazil's 1970 team, often called the greatest ever, win the World Cup final 4–1?

Estadio Azteca in Mexico City staged the final, but Brazil had played all five of its earlier games at the Estadio Jalisco in Guadalajara.