How Brazilian Soccer Shed Protectionism

Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief. The highlights this week: The new economics of Brazilian soccer, changing Cuban migration patterns, and a far-right surge in Colombia’s presidential elections. Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief. The highlights this week: The new economics of Brazilian soccer, changing Cuban migration patterns, and a far-right surge in Colombia’s presidential elections. The FIFA World Cup kicks off next Thursday in Mexico City. Before play begins, rosters already reveal a story about the transformation of Brazilian soccer. This year, 25 players in Brazil’s top club division have been called up for the national teams of other countries, more than triple the previous record. Brazil’s professional soccer sector has long been protectionist. But in the last decade, it internationalized—opening up to foreign players, coaches, and money. This year, the national team will be coached by a foreigner for the first time in decades. Brazil’s protectionist streak hardened after its third World Cup title in 1970, when officials concluded that “we’ve done it all with Brazilian coaches and we don’t need the rest of the world,” Brazil-based soccer writer Tim Vickery said. By around 2015, that thinking had changed. Brazilian teams were underperforming in the South American club tournament relative to how much money they had. And Brazil had suffered a humiliating 7-1 loss to Germany in the 2014 World Cup. “It was fairly obvious that Brazilian needed an external shock,” Vickery said. Brazilian clubs tried out foreign coaches, and one dazzled: Jorge Jesus, a Portuguese coach who joined Rio de Janeiro-based club Flamengo in 2019 and won title after title. “Brazilian football had gotten very defensive,” Vickery said, but Jesus allotted more players to the attacking wing than Brazilian coaches typically would. “They won in style and swagger,” and “that opened the floodgates for more foreign coaches,” he added. Brazil’s top league began raising the limit for foreign players that could play for each club during a match, which went from three in 2013 to nine today. In 2021, Brazil passed a law that made it easier for private investors to buy shares in soccer clubs that opted to become for-profit entities. For international players, “undoubtedly the most important factor is the revenue of Brazilian clubs,” Rodrigo Capelo, a Brazilian sports journalist, said. In 2024, Brazil’s top-division clubs together raked in $1.9 billion, around 10 times the revenue of their equivalents in Chile or Colombia—helped by the 2021 law as well as booming sponsorships from betting companies. Brazilian clubs began performing better internationally and have now won the top South American club championship seven years in a row. At last year’s FIFA Club World Cup, Brazilian teams beat Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea, and Inter Milan. Most foreign players in Brazil are from other South American countries. They can often earn more at top Brazilian clubs than at home and sometimes more than at smaller European clubs. A handful of European players later in their careers have also begun playing in Brazil. Colombian winger Andrés Gómez, who will represent his country in the World Cup, moved from French club Rennes last year to play for Vasco de Gama in Rio de Janeiro. He told Globo Esporte that playing in Brazil helped him gain visibility, saying, “The Colombian national team coach saw the physical level demanded by Brazilian soccer, which is world-class.” Brazil’s newfound openness to international soccer personnel and funding is a pro-market transformation in what is still a fairly closed country. Winning streaks by Brazilian teams that moved toward privatization provided fuel for Argentines advocating for their own soccer sector to privatize. Still, some Brazilian clubs that received big injections of foreign cash since 2021 spent it quickly and are now in financial trouble. This year’s World Cup may show whether internationalizing Brazilian soccer can help the national team’s performance. The team’s new coach, Italian Carlo Ancelotti, has earned dozens of European club titles. Ancelotti is used to handling big egos and has endeared himself to Brazilians by learning Portuguese. “I don’t think any Brazilian is unsatisfied with the national team in Ancelotti’s hands,” Capelo said, adding that represents “a strong cultural shift for us.” Still, “I don’t know if he is capable of carrying out a revolution with the current generation of players.” Friday, June 5, to Sunday, June 7: Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez concludes a trip to India. Sunday, June 7: Peru holds a presidential runoff election. Thursday, June 11: Mexico plays South Africa in the opening game of the FIFA World Cup. Cuba’s growing diaspora. Amid U.S. migration restrictions on Cuba and a severe economic crisis, those emigrating from Cuba have sought other destinations in recent years. U.S. border officials’ encounters

How Brazilian Soccer Shed Protectionism

Key takeaways

More in publications