Proving that football sometimes explains life, defeat as the ones we witnessed in 1950 and 2014, for which we are never prepared, whether we desire it or admit it beforehand, is ultimately an instrument of renewal of life. As much as a victory, it constitutes the very way of being in the world. That is what the extraordinary history of Brazilian football proves.
If a succession of defeats is devastating, then the constant succession of victories carries with it the germ of the rotting of wills, the languor capable of making the individual accommodated with the illusion of a world without frustrations.
Losing involves debris removal: start over. Losing, after the emotion of tears, allows us to regain the sense of moderation, the contradictory reality, but rich in possibilities, in other words, the true dimension of life.
The average Brazilian will experience the competition in Qatar taken by this spirit of renewal, hope, and wonder in the face of absolute unpredictability regarding the conquest of another World Cup.
It has been twenty years since the team with the iconic golden yellow jersey won its last World Cup. That is too long for any Brazilian who still believes that we own the secrets of the beautiful game, still alive in the humble pitches of Brazil, but increasingly threatened by the logic of the global economic market of football and by a doubtful tendency of some of our clubs to copy styles and tactics coming from Europe.
Silvio Albuquerque is Brazil Ambassador to Kenya