Soccer Star Neymar, Supermodel Gisele Among Brazil’s Most Powerful Celebrities

Anderson Antunes – Forbes, 12/3/2014

Brazilian soccer star Neymar da Silva Santos Junior’s year hasn’t been the best of his career. In February he was caught in a tax scandal related to his signing in 2013 with professional soccer team FC Barcelona. Then in July the former Santos forward suffered a serious back injury during a match between the Brazilian national soccer team and the Colombian team at the World Cup quarter final that led to him sit out the remainder of the month-long tournament.

Still, the 22-year-old footballer managed to top the recently released list of the 100 most powerful celebrities in Brazil, compiled by FORBES Brasil, an affiliate of FORBES. The list follows the same methodology as FORBES’ Celebrity 100, which is the ultimate ranking of the top stars from the worlds of movies, TV, music, sports, books and modeling based on money and fame. Media presence was determined by Berkshire Hathaway-owned news agency PR Newswire and consumer rating metrics were measured by Brazilian agency Agencia Suba.

To put together its list of Brazilian celebrities, FORBES Brasil considered entertainment-related earnings plus media visibility (exposure in print, television, radio and online) by talking to industry insiders, including agents, lawyers, producers and other experts. Unlike FORBES, though, Forbes Brasil does not specify how much each Brazilian celebrity has earned over a specific period of time.

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Brazil Must Acknowledge World Cup Failure to Make Progress

Robbie Blakeley – Bleacher Report, 11/04/2014

In all walks of life there are turning points. Moments that force you to stop, contemplate what has gone and fundamentally shape the future. On a personal level that kind of event may be marriage, parenthood, achieving a career goal. An occasion that marks the “then” and “now” of an epic journey.

For Brazil and their incredibly successful national side, one such moment came on July 8, 2014. On that fateful evening, the five-time world champions suffered the most humiliating result in their history, a 7-1 mauling at the hands of Germany in the World Cup semi-final.

It was the most one-sided semi-final result in the tournament’s history. And to rub salt into an already gaping wound, Brazil’s quest to rid themselves of the 1950 ghosts and be crowned world champions on their own soil had been wiped out in less than half an hour of the contest.

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Dissatisfaction with the World Cup grows again at the end

Folha de S. Paulo, 7/17/2014

São Paulo – Brazilian dissatisfaction with the World Cup in the country grew with the end of the competition, notes a Datafolha report.

Compared with the numbers calculated in the previous survey, completed between the 1^st and 2^nd of July, in the middle of the competition, the number of people who said that the Cup brings more harm than good to Brazilians rose eight points, from 46% to 54%. Yet those that think that it brings more good than harm fell nine points, from 45% to 36%.

These post-World Cup numbers are identical to the pre-World Cup numbers. In a study performed between the 3^rd and 5^th of June, one week before the opening of the Cup, 54% said that the Cup would bring more harm than good to the Brazilians, and 36% said it would bring more good.

Success for Brazil, Just Not on the Field

Jeré Longman – The New York Times, 7/13/2014

RIO DE JANEIRO — When Mario Götze settled a crossing pass with his chest and volleyed a goal that won the World Cup, German fans roared in ecstatic release. Those from Brazil were nearly as delirious, even if it was out of relief as much as celebration.

It might have seemed an odd sight, Brazilian fans celebrating another team inside their own cathedral of soccer, the Maracanã stadium. But after two demoralizing losses brought national embarrassment, solace finally came Sunday as Germany defeated Argentina, 1-0, to become the first European team to win a World Cup played in North or South America.

“Argentina winning would have been the worst thing I could think of,” said Jaime Costa, 30, a Brazil fan who works in publicity for a music company.

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World Cup: Brazil Is Going to Be Just Fine

Matthew Futterman – The Wall Street Journal, 7/9/2014

Guess what happened in Brazil today?

The sun came up. People went to work. They drove taxis, opened grocery stores, clicked on their computers to handle legal and financial matters. Doctors healed the sick. Social workers tackled the problems of the vast poverty in this country of some 200 million. Life went on.

Guess what didn’t happen? Cities didn’t burn. Mass riots didn’t erupt. As far as we can tell, no soccer fans threw themselves off buildings because their beloved Seleção was embarrassed by Germany, 7-1, in Tuesday’s World Cup semifinal.

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Brazil supporters find time to laugh after football demolition

Joe Leahy – Financial Times, 7/9/2014

No sooner had what has already become known in Brazil as “The Massacre” started than the black-humoured jokes about the host team’s demolition by Germany began doing the rounds on the internet.

Showing resilience in the face of adversity, Brazilians had already begun to laugh good-humouredly at themselves even before Germany had passed five goals on its road to its historic 7-1 World Cup humiliation of the hosts.

The first joke to come through Whatsapp was a picture of a defiant Christ the Redeemer, the famous statue that overlooks Rio de Janeiro, holding an uzi sub-machine gun in each outstretched hand like a gangster with the message: “The Cup stays here.”

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Bye-Bye, Brazil

Michael Goodman – Foreign Policy, 7/8/2014

And just like that, they’re gone. This World Cup was always going to be defined by Brazil. Now that they’re no longer in the tournament, it will be defined by their absence. The primary question of World Cup 2014 was whether the hosts would let anyone else win it. The loss now raises another question, one that will remain long after the tournament is over: What’s next?

Let’s start with the soccer part, because it’s a lot simpler. This particular Brazilian squad was constructed with a win-at-all-costs ethos. It’s a team focused on positional discipline in the middle of the field, tough tackling, and tactical fouling. Flair is shunted out to the wings. There are no teenage players here to get experience or older veterans trotted out for one last sentimental showing. There are no ancillary benefits or secondary goals. For this group of players, the sole purpose is to win the 2014 World Cup. That’s all that matters. And that’s why, at 2-0 down to Germany, the house collapsed so astonishingly quickly.

Brazil’s was a particularly dangerous approach given how fickle a short soccer tournament can be — just ask Neymar’s back. But it’s also hard to criticize Brazil, given the relative disarray of their soccer program over the last four years. Many members of Brazil’s next generation of talent haven’t quite panned out. The careers of Alexandre Pato, Ganso, and Leandro Damiao, among others, are stuck in neutral. And while Brazil’s youngsters won a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics in London, their loss in the finals to Mexico was considered an enormously significant defeat.

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In A Favela, As Brazil Loses, The Fireworks Show Must Go On

Matt Negrin – Forbes, 7/8/2014

The most confusing part about Brazil’s pathetic loss to Germany was why the fireworks didn’t stop exploding in the favela.

During any Brazil match, the streets in this country are empty — in any city, Brazilians either watch in bars or in their homes. The Vila Kennedy favela, with its steep streets and narrow corridors outside Rio, is no different, and that’s where the Costa family watched the massacre.

I’ve written about the Costas before, and they invited me back to their home for the semifinal. They were ecstatic before it began — the mother, Gorete, wearing a Brazil visor and shirt; Joao, her 19-year-old son, putting on his jersey that he had laid out on his bed until the right moment; Jovana, her tiny granddaughter, chanting “David Luiz!” nonstop.

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Brazil Reduced to Emotional Paralysis

Joshua Robinson – The Wall Street Journal, 7/8/2014

Brazil’s ambitious and optimistic national campaign to win the World Cup on home soil for the first time didn’t just end Tuesday. It fell to pieces as if there had been nothing holding it together in the first place.

In a 7-1 loss to Germany, the Seleção—as Brazil’s national team is known—was humiliated so thoroughly that the 58,000 fans inside the Estádio Mineirão seemed to be in a state of emotional paralysis before halftime.

Goal by goal, the Germans rewrote Brazilian soccer history. The Seleção hadn’t lost a competitive game on home soil since 1975. It hadn’t conceded as many as four goals in a World Cup game since 1954. And it goes without saying that no team has ever given up seven goals in a World Cup semifinal.

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No cause for celebration in Brazil, and yet the party still goes on

Oliver Moody – DW, 7/9/2014

Throughout the World Cup, people have told me that if and when Brazil go out, there would be trouble. The degree of the chaos predicted varied, with some even suggesting that full-scale riots would be on the cards. Most were far less sensational, but locals and tourists alike warned me to stay indoors if the unthinkable (if not improbable) happened.

Well, Brazil lost. And then some.

Germany’s incredible 7-1 win over the hosts gave me the chance to see the reaction to Brazil’s exit from their own World Cup up close. I had prepared myself for the worst, but as the goals flew past Julio Cesar it became clear that I had got it all wrong.

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