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World Cup blog

Matthias Frickel, Rio de Janeiro / alJuly 11, 2014

Three days ago Brazil was proudly wearing the jersey of Selecao. All of Rio was yellow. Overnight the color yellow has disappeared from the city. DW reporter Matthias Frickel has been out searching for a yellow jersey.

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Selecao jersey in front of a shop in Rio
Image: DW/M. Frickel

Since I have arrived in Rio, the city has been bathed in yellow. The sun has been shining and every second Brazilian has been wearing the bright yellow playing shirt of the Selecao.

Every corner shop has shirts, caps and mini-skirts hanging on display for purchase, so people can show their support for the Brazilian national team. People proudly wore their Brazil jerseys everywhere, whether they were young, old, short or tall, beautiful or not so beautiful.

On days when Brazil's team was playing you could have almost thought that the government had ordered people to wear the Selecao shirt, because everyone seemed to be wearing it. Yellow has been the color of the national team since 1953. After the traumatic loss in the World Cup final in 1950 against Uruguay, the national football association decided to get rid of the white tops of the team.

DW Reporter Matthias Frickel
DW's Matthias FrickelImage: DW/M. Frickel

There was a competition with 201 competitors to pick the new shirt design for the team. Aldyr Garcia Schlee, who was 19 years old, was the winner. Since then the team has played in the canary yellow shirt, blue shorts and white socks. Even if the team broke with the tradition this tournament by playing in white shorts, the jersey stayed sacred. But for how long?

When the sky cries

Today, it's raining and no-one on the streets is wearing the yellow playing shirt of Brazil. Seemingly overnight the yellow shirts have disappeared from Rio's streets. It seems that the replica shirts, stained with tears, have now landed in the washing machine. Who knows what color it will have when they take the shirt out of the machine again in four years time.

In all of Rio I only met one lonely guy who had to keep wearing the yellow shirt of the Selecao. But, he can't help it. He has arms that he can't move and he has to stand guard in front of a souvenir shop. In the future it will probably just be tourists who will want to buy the famous yellow shirt here.