The opening of the 2026 World Cup, in addition to igniting common enthusiasm, boosted a wave of inventiveness among football lovers.
Accounts from pop culture enthusiasts and comedy portals began portraying the national team’s daily lives and performances, incorporating sophisticated terminologies and ideas from popular series such as Naruto and Jujutsu Kaisen. This movement highlights an unprecedented form of engagement, where younger audiences integrate specific cultural codes to experience and comment on large-scale sporting events.
This singular trend redefined the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) as a fictional “Hidden Village”, while the team’s young talents, such as striker Endrick, were elevated to the status of figures with mythical powers.
The center of this new internet mythology is the young 19-year-old striker, now known on digital platforms as “Pelé’s Jinchūriki”. The term makes a clear allusion to the warriors in the anime Naruto who harbor beasts of great power sealed inside them.
In humorous publications prepared as journalistic exclusives, coach Carlo Ancelotti’s decision to keep the promising athlete on the bench during the match against Morocco, which took place last Saturday (13), received an explanation, to say the least, quite peculiar.
The inventiveness of sports fans was not restricted, however, to a single universe, encompassing other narratives from the vast Japanese pop culture.
Observations on social media linked the members of the technical committee to scenarios from Jujutsu Kaisen, Dragon Ball and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, raising speculation, in a joking tone, about the carrying out of almost supernatural experiments to improve the team’s performance.
At the same time, tactical discussions about the ideal formation of the team incorporated concepts such as Edo Tensei, a ninja technique for reviving the dead, with the good-humored justification that it would be simpler to “bring back Neymar in his best phase and without injuries” than to deal with the current medical treatment of the Brazilian number 10 star.
Next challenge for the Brazilian team in the group stage of the World Cup
The Brazilian team has a meeting scheduled with Haiti next Friday, June 19th, in the city of Philadelphia, located in the United States.
Scheduled date: June 19th (Friday)
Game time: 9:30 pm (Brasília time zone)
Stadium defined: Lincoln Financial Field
Location: Philadelphia, United States
Follow the full schedule of the team’s matches below:
Detailed calendar of the Brazilian team’s games at the World Cup
In the first round, Brazil faced Morocco on June 13 (Saturday), starting at 7pm Brasília time (6pm local time), at the MetLife Stadium, in the New Jersey-New York region, United States.
The second clash will be Brazil against Haiti, on June 19 (Friday), with kick-off at 9:30 pm Brasília (8:30 pm local time), at the Lincoln Financial Field Stadium, located in Philadelphia, United States.
For the third round, the team will face Scotland, on June 24 (Wednesday), at 7pm Brasilia time (6pm local time), at the Hard Rock Stadium, in the city of Miami, United States.