Month: November 2026

I think I speak for many of us when I say this feels like a particularly hard time to get excited about the Brazil national team.

It’s not hard to see why. The Seleção capped off four years of chaos with a deeply underwhelming World Cup campaign and exit. While the premature exit is hardly a new occurrence, it also feels like past World Cup cycles began with an ember of hope that seems all but absent this time. Whether it was confidence that the likes of Neymar and Thiago Silva would continue to be among the world’s best, or that a new generation of midfielders like Allan and Arthur might finally resolve Brazil’s weakness in the sector,¹ or that Vini Júnior would keep blossoming into one of the world’s best players, it combined with certainty that some new world-beating talents we’d never heard of would emerge from Brazil’s vast footballing youth ranks and establish themselves near the top of the Seleção’s depth chart.

This year it’s hard to feel that confidence. Neymar long ago crumbled into dust, probably around 2023, but this is the first time we’ve really, definitively had to acknowledge the reality that there is no possible universe in which he might still save us. Vini, easily Brazil’s sole outstanding player at the World Cup, has been so calamitous since his return to club football that people are only half-jokingly wondering whether the jaw-enchaddening procedure he supposedly got in the offseason was in fact a cover for his being killed and replaced by a body double. Endrick and Estêvão, Brazil’s current leading barely-out-of-childhood vessels for the nation’s footballing hopes, are both stuck in horrible quagmires at clubs which seem willing neither to acknowledge their talent nor let them pursue opportunities elsewhere. (Though you might well put some of the blame for Endrick’s situation on the man himself, or perhaps on his lord and savior Jesus Christ, of whom he is apparently such a devout follower that he is reportedly unwilling to go to AC Milan on account of the club being nicknamed “Il Diavolo”.)²³ While there are, as always, exciting young talents coming up through the pipeline, it’s hard to see anybody who’s in a position to make a difference any time soon. Soon-to-be-debutants Alisson Santana and Allan, for instance? Both fine players, and it’s a credit to Allan’s ability and versatility that he’s immediately getting decent minutes, even as a rotation player, for Man City. But it’s hard to see him starting for Brazil at the Copa América, for instance.

But compounding that is just the general malaise around the Seleção’s play right now, which is doing even less to herald a positive change in fortune. It’s safe to say the glorious new Carlo Ancelotti era has already turned sour. After the World Cup disappointment, we were just hoping to draw any optimism from the team’s start to the new cycle, and now we’re starting to feel silly for having hoped. The road to 2030 began with a dismal performance against Australia, saved only by Rayan’s last-minute equalizer. A 4-2 win in the rematch four days later offered some improvement, particularly an absolutely gorgeous game-winning goal. But the closing match of that last FIFA date was when I really felt the pessimism seep into me.