It was recently announced that in 2026 the Brazilian National Team's away jersey will not be blue. In fact Nike, with the federations approval, has decided that the away jersey won't have any of the colors in the Brazilian flag. Even though no further information was given at the moment, this is a great opportunity to remember the rich history behind Brazil's blue away jersey.
The story starts in 1950 when Brazil, like a lot national teams and clubs, only had one set of uniforms: white. However, Brazil lost the 1950 World Cup final at home against Uruguay in a match known as the Maracanazo, which is to this day the countries biggest sporting trauma.
The trauma was so big that Brazil retired the white uniform and switched to Yellow from the national flag. The yellow jersey, which is the primary color used to this day, caused an issue when Brazil returned to a World Cup final in 1958 against Sweden. The Swedes were hosting and also played in yellow, forcing Brazil to find a solution. The only practical answer was to bring back the white jersey but the scar from 1950 had not yet healed.
During the days leading up to the final, Paulo Machado de Carvalho, the head of the Brazilian delegation, got on his knees to pray and when he looked up he saw a statue of Our Lady of Aparecida. Brazil's patroness is always depicted wearing a blue robe, which Paulo Machado saw as a divine sign to give Brazil its first World Cup title. Brazil played that final wearing blue for the first time in history, crushed Sweden in Stockholm by 5x2 and finally lifted the trophy.
