RIO DE JANEIRO // Visiting Brazil this month, you might struggle to find accommodation or internal flights or even a seat in a Rio cafe, but there is one thing you will certainly not struggle to find and that is somewhere selling the national team’s football shirt. You can pick up a Brazil shirt on every street, every stall, every shop, everywhere. All shapes and sizes, some real, some counterfeit, shirts from 1970 and shirts from 1994. Yellow not your colour? Try the blue away shirt. Or the infamous white shirt from the 1950 World Cup. Or a smart black shirt that nobody has ever seen the Selecao actually play in. Love Brazil, but hate its disorganised and allegedly corrupt football association? Try a replica of the 2014 shirt, but instead of the letters CBF in the crest, it will read “torcida” (translation: “Fans”) or simply “Brasil”. |
Tired of the fact everybody wears the No 10 of Neymar Jr? You could try a No 11 to show your support for Romario, the former striker turned outspoken politician or even a No 3, a tribute to the current captain, Thiago Silva. Sure, they are not as prevalent and you might need to actually search for them, but you will find them.
In fact, the only shirt you will not find in Brazil – and it may come as a surprise given the population’s international reputation for confident showboating – is one with six stars. Such is the superstitiousness in the country that a shirt with six stars will never be produced until a sixth World Cup title is signed, sealed and delivered. ISWAS