Even if you don’t have any idea about what soccer is, you probably at least know how popular the game is around the world. Especially in Brazil.
Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, and Brazil is known to be one one of the most famous countries when it comes to soccer. Brazil is widely known as the Home of Football (Soccer).
But why is soccer so popular in Brazil?
Possibly some of the main reasons why soccer became popular in Brazil are the extreme poverty among the Brazilian youth, the fame that some soccer players gained in Brazil, and the world wide success of the Brazilian national soccer team.
Each of these reasons contributed to making soccer the most popular sport in Brazil. Here are more details about each one of them.
1- The Brazilian youth faces extreme poverty conditions.
Unfortunately, the world has never been a safe place for every human being alive, and Brazil is home for many poor kids who struggle everyday for survival.
Poverty conditions however won’t always prevent kids from attempting to have fun playing games with their friends and family, and soccer came in as the perfect game for these kids.
Since many Brazilian kids and people in general didn’t have a lot of options when attempting to have fun due to the poverty conditions that many of them lived in, there was a need for an entertainment option that doesn’t involve money and that brings as many people together as possible.
Soccer was that option for many Brazilian people.
Since the day Thomas Donohoe introduced soccer to the Brazilian people, the popularity of soccer grew each day and more young people were adopting the game. It is a very simple game to learn, and it was super fun.
The best part of it all is that it is extremely cheap. you don’t need anything to play soccer other than a rounded ball, and only one ball is needed for a soccer match to take place.
You could even attempt to create the ball yourself by taping together any soft around you if you couldn’t afford a ball. The ball wouldn’t be so great, but it’ll do.
These factors along with other factors skyrocketed the popularity of the soccer game in Brazil over time.
2- Brazil is behind some of the best soccer players around the world
The huge interest that many Brazilian people developed towards soccer opened the doors for some brazilian soccer players to shine and grow. Pele, one of the greatest soccer players in the history of the game, is a great example here.
Pele is a Brazilian soccer player who has helped his country win many world wide soccer competitions including 3 world cups.
During the 1958 world cup final, the 17 years old Pele scored 2 goals and helped his country win its first world cup title ever.
That helped Pele later become one of the most popular athletes around the world. People wanted to become like Pele, do what Pele does, and so on.
Pele and other great Brazilian soccer players had their influence on the popularity of soccer in Brazil. He was one of those extremely poor kids who had soccer as their passion, and as a poor kid was able to be a world wide success. He became a role model for many other Brazilian kids.
And as you can tell, the moment Pele reached his world wide success, many young poor kids attempted to replicate his success and embrace soccer even more, and that might help grow the popularity of soccer in Brazil even more.
What I am saying here is that Pele, and other brilliant Brazilian soccer players were viewed as role models inside Brazil, and soccer wasn’t just viewed as fun by many young people, but also as a way to escape poverty and become a worldwide success.
3- The Brazilian national soccer team
One of the biggest achievements as a soccer player or as a soccer team is to win the World cup competition.
The world cup is easily the biggest sports event in the world. To give you an idea, more than 3.5 Billion people watched the 2018 soccer world cup that was held in Russia.
During the time of this article, Brazil has won 5 world cups, making them the most world cup winners in the game.
As a Brazilian kid, you can’t just ignore the fact that your country holds the world record of winning the biggest sports competition in the world the most number of times.
In other words, if you’re Brazilian, then there’s an extremely high chance that you have heard about soccer or even attempted to play soccer.
So, the world wide success of the Brazilian national soccer team might have also contributed to the growth of the game’s popularity inside Brazil.
With that said, I’ll end the article by saying that while the reasons above could have been very important for the popularity of soccer in Brazil, there are definitely many other reasons that have contributed to making Brazil the home of football (soccer).
Thank you for reading this far. Enjoy the rest of your time.