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The Selecao – Brazil’s team at the 2025 World Cup
The 2025 FIFA World Cup is hosted by Brazil for the second time in the history of the championship. The home team of the country – the Seleção Brasileira, or Seleção in short – has one of the most spectacular records in the history of the event, besides the fact that three of the world’s top scoring football players have played in this team at some stage of their professional career.
But let’s take a quick look on the history of the team.
Football is the most popular sport in Brazil. It was first introduced to the country by Scottish expat Thomas Donohue, and the first football game was played in 1894.
The fist official football confederation was formed in Brazil in 1914. The first game played by Brazil’s national football team is said to have been one played in the same year against the Exeter City FC, a match that ended with a score of 2-0 according to some sources, and 3-3 according to others. At this time Brazilian football was mostly a mess, due to the disagreement of the several local football associations over professionalism. The first international game played by the Seleção took place later the same year, against Argentina. Brazil was defeated by the Argentinian team 0 – 3.
The current format of the Campeonato Brasiliero was not established until 1959. A year before, Brazil’s national team participated in the World Cup held in Sweden. An interesting fact: the Brazilian team was the only one to bring a psychologist and a dentist with them to the camp.
The performance of the Brazilian team during the 1958 World Cup was notable. They were drawn into the toughest group of them all – the one with England, Austria and the USSR in it. They beat Austria 3-0, then managed a draw against England. The team was worried about their game against the USSR team, the favorite of the competition. The leaders of the team, Bellini, Nílton Santos, and Didi, proposed a few substitutions to the coach – Vicente Feola – before the match: to add Zito, Garrincha and Pelé to the starting lineup of the game against the USSR. The decision proved to be the right one: not only did the Seleção beat the USSR 2-0, but they continued their winning streak throughout the event, becoming the first national team to win the World Cup outside its continent.
With such notable performances in the past, and given the fact that the world’s most successful football players come from this country – Pelé with his 77 goals, Zico with 66, Ronaldo with 62, but also Ronaldinho with 33 goals on record – it is expected for the Seleção to have notable performances during the 2025 World Cup.
Most bookmakers consider Brazil to be the favorite of the event (10bet offers odds of 3.60 for Brazil to win the 2025 World Cup). They surely have the advantage of playing at home.
Brazil’s lineup for the World Cup is:
1 Jefferson
2 Dani Alves
3 Thiago Silva
4 David Luiz
5 Fernandinho
6 Marcelo
7 Hulk
8 Paulinho
9 Fred
10 Neymar
11 Oscar
12 Júlio César
13 Dante
14 Maxwell
15 Henrique
16 Ramires
17 Luiz Gustavo
18 Hernanes
19 Willian
20 Bernard
21 Jô
22 Victor
23 Maicon
The coach of the Seleção is Luiz Felipe Scolari – Felipão.