It was March 25, 2023 and 5 of the 26 called up by Carlo Ancelotti for this year’s World Cup were on the field in the 2-1 defeat to Morocco, the Brazilian team’s first friendly after Tite’s departure. Weverton, Ibañez, Lucas Paquetá, Casemiro and Vinicius Junior were starters. In addition to them, Ederson and Bremer remained on the bench.
On Saturday (13), in New Jersey, the team will meet Morocco again in their debut, in Group C, which opens the final stretch of this 2026 World Cup cycle and the search for a sixth championship 24 years after the penta.
Between Tite’s departure and the debut in this year’s tournament, Brazil had four coaches, saw disputes for command of the CBF, suffered unprecedented and painful defeats to Colombia and Argentina in the Qualifiers, lost Neymar for almost two years after a serious knee injury and ended the South American classification in fifth place, the worst campaign in the competition.
Under Tite’s command, Brazil finished the 2018 and 2022 World Cup qualifiers in the lead and without defeats.
However, a turbulent campaign in the Qualifiers did not always prevent success in the World Cups. The last time that Brazil did not finish the South American competition at the top was before the 2002 World Cup, when the team also had four commanders until winning the fifth championship in South Korea and Japan with Luiz Felipe Scolari.
Between 1983 and the 1986 World Cup, the team went through four other coaches. At that time, Carlos Alberto Parreira, Edu Coimbra, Evaristo de Macedo and Telê Santana led the team at different moments of the cycle.
“Parreira, Edu, Evaristo and Telê were all effective. In this current cycle, what was really shocking was having three interim coaches for so long”, analyzes Ademir Takara, librarian at the CRFB (Brazilian Football Reference Center), who considers that Dorival, even though he was in office, was a plan B waiting for negotiations with Ancelotti.
The cycle also produced a partial renewal of the cast. Endrick debuted for the main team during Diniz’s tenure, scored on Dorival Júnior’s debut against England and reached the World Cup after finding the net in the friendly against Egypt, the last match before the World Cup.
In addition to him, names like Luiz Henrique, Danilo Santos, Rayan and Igor Thiago gained space throughout the reconstruction, while Matheus Cunha is going to his first World Cup after being left off the 2022 list.
Preparation for the World Cup under Ancelotti included eight friendlies. The team beat South Korea, Senegal, Croatia, Panama and Egypt, drew with Tunisia and lost to Japan and France. The last commitment before the World Cup was the 2-1 victory over the Egyptians. Wesley was injured in the match and was cut, with Éderson arriving to replace him.
Choices in the midst of turbulence
While Carlo Ancelotti was the entity’s main target after Tite’s departure, President Ednaldo Rodrigues resorted to interim solutions. Ramon Menezes, coach of the under-20 team, oversaw defeats to Morocco and Senegal, as well as victory over Guinea.
After him, Fernando Diniz took over the team without leaving the command of Fluminense. The expectation was that he would only remain until the arrival of Ancelotti, whose signing was treated by the CBF as a matter of time and already had a specific date: the 2024 Copa América.
Diniz’s start was promising. Brazil beat Bolivia and Peru in the first two rounds of the Qualifiers. The reaction, however, was short-lived.
In October, the team drew with Venezuela and lost to Uruguay. The defeat in Montevideo also marked Neymar’s last match with the national team’s shirt to date — it is still not certain when he will be able to play in this World Cup. The attacker suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in his left knee.
The crisis deepened the following month. Brazil lost to Colombia for the first time in the history of the Qualifiers and, days later, was defeated by Argentina at Maracanã. The setback ended the team’s unbeaten run as home team throughout the history of the competition and represented the team’s third consecutive defeat, something unprecedented in the Qualifiers.
On December 7, Ednaldo Rodrigues was removed from the presidency of the entity by court decision. At the end of the month, Ancelotti renewed his contract with Real Madrid until June 2026, once again postponing the possibility of taking over the national team.
Ednaldo was reappointed as president of the CBF by the STF in January. Pressured by the sequence of negative results, Fernando Diniz was fired. Without Ancelotti, it was up to Dorival Júnior, Brazilian Cup champion with São Paulo, to take the blame.
The debut brought signs of recovery. In March, Brazil beat England at Wembley and drew with Spain in Madrid. The results ended a run of four matches without a win and began the work that would culminate in the Copa América.
In the United States, however, the team once again experienced fluctuations. They drew with Costa Rica and Colombia, defeated Paraguay and advanced to the quarter-finals without convincing. Against Uruguay, they ended in a goalless draw and were eliminated on penalties.
The campaign increased pressure on Dorival, who began the second half of 2024 trying to recover ground in the Qualifiers. Brazil beat Ecuador, Chile, Peru and Colombia, but also had stumbles against Paraguay, Venezuela and Uruguay. The irregularity prevented the team from getting closer to the competition leaders.
In March 2025, a new blow. After defeating Colombia in Brasília, the team was beaten 4-1 by Argentina in Buenos Aires. The result ended Dorival’s tenure and increased the pressure for the CBF to finally resolve who would be responsible for taking the team to the World Cup.
Ancelotti, Ednaldo and Samir Xaud
The instability was not restricted to the field and continued to define the cycle of the Brazilian football entity. In December 2024, Ronaldo announced his intention to run for president of the CBF, but abandoned the project months later, without sufficient support from state federations.
The two-time world champion stated that he found “23 closed doors” among the country’s 27 federations and withdrew his candidacy before the election that returned Ednaldo Rodrigues to the position.
Re-elected, Ednaldo tried everything to remain in office and finally announced the hiring of Carlo Ancelotti on May 12, 2025. He rushed with the announcement in an attempt to divert attention from the hearing he would have with the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice, but it was not enough. The new removal came three days later. Samir Xaud was subsequently elected to the position.
Ancelotti’s debut came in June, in a goalless draw against Ecuador. In the next round, they beat Paraguay and qualified for the World Cup. Brazil also defeated Chile and ended the Qualifiers with a defeat to Bolivia, a result that confirmed fifth place — the team’s worst campaign in the competition’s history.
