Shortly before the Sweden World Cup in 1958, the genius Nelson Rodrigues wrote the chronicle “mutt complex.”
“By mutt complex,” he wrote, “I understand the inferiority in which the Brazilian stands in the rest of the world. In all sectors and, above all, in football.”
For Nelson, the Brazilian expanded this subordinate in football, from the defeat in the decision of the 1950 World Cup at home, to Uruguay, in which, in his words, we lost “for a simple reason: because obdulio [Varela, o capitão da Celeste] He treated us the kicks, as if mutts were. “
We lost, according to the writer and playwright, not because we have no technical or tactical, but because we felt inferior.
Note the comparison to emblem the Brazilian. The mutt is a dog without a definite genetic lineage due to the mixture of races. So were the ones here who played football at the time. Mestizos. Far from the nobility or wealth.
Half-stopped and seen with suspicion by society, as well as the lectures of the time, who were flashing the streets, without owner, turning the trash cans looking for food remains, shook by passers-by. Some poor ones.
With the success of Pelé, Garrincha and company in the Scandinavian fields, the mutt complex faded. Mayral, we become five-time world champions.
But after winning in 2002, we lost the 2006 World Cup, and 2010, and 2014, and 2018, and 2022.
We stayed 17 without electing a better in the world, until Vini Junior won the FIFA The Best Award in 2024. Why? By performances at Real Madrid, not with the yellow shirt of the national team.
He, like the other players, has yellowish with, as Zagallo said, “hopscotch”. Marquinhos, a European champion a few days ago with the Frenchman PSG, said, after defeat to Paraguay last year, to lack confidence to the national team.
The real thing is that opponents no longer tremble against Brazil. And we Brazilians (team and fans), if we do not shake, are incorporating Nelson’s “viralism”.
Self-esteem lowered vertiginly post-cup from Qatar. On the way to 2026, there were three defeats in a row in the qualifiers, something unprecedented. Until this Thursday (5), in 25 games, we tied 8 and lost 7, with a use of wins of mere 40%.
To culminate, the 4-1 humiliation before Argentina, who overthrew Dorival Júnior.
The solution? Resort to a foreign coach. Nothing more shameful for the class of national technicians, seen today more than ever as a category, always alluding to Nelson, mutt, disconcerted.
Carlo Ancelotti, an Italian, in the Brazilian team. Qualified, but does not speak our language and in his 65 years had never stepped on Rio, our largest postcard. Without xenophobia, this is the reality.
In other times, it would be a delirium to give the selection reins, the homeland in the boots (as Nelson said), to a gringo. Not now. We lost our self-love and need a stranger to work.
Currently, the mutt is no longer marginalized or despised. However, in the absence of a term for the complex we live, I use the past to verbalize the present feeling related to the selection. We viralate.
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