FIFA World Cup: Why Pele’s daughter thinks Brazilian football is broken

2 min readUpdated: Jul 9, 2026 11:17 PM IST

Brazil's Neymar (10) walks off the field with teammates after the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Brazil and Norway in East Rutherford, N.J., near New York, Sunday, July 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Kely Nascimento, daughter of the legendary Pele, said that Brazil’s footballing system was broken. This came days after the Selecao were shockingly knocked out of the FIFA World Cup Round of 16 vs Norway on Monday.

“Brazilian football is broken. Whether it is corruption … it’s like a closed, very ⁠incestuous ​ecosystem where no one can see inside, and everybody knows why it is not working, but nobody can fix it,” Nascimento said in an interview with Reuters.

Nascimeto also said the country’s wealth of talent continued ​to ​produce top players, but that their ⁠struggles on the international stage were symptomatic of deeper structural problems.

With the loss to Norway, Brazil failed to reach the quarterfinals for the first time since 1990. They won the last of their record five World Cups in 2002. After the loss, Neymar also indicated that he may have played his last match for Brazil.

Sunday’s loss also meant that Brazil’s long wait to win the World Cup continues. In the last five World Cups, Brazil has lost in the quarter-final four times and reached the semi-finals only once — when the Thiago Silva led team lost 1-7 against Germany in the 2014 World Cup. Ancelotti shared how the team needs some young talent and how they can manage it going into the next World Cup cycle.

“Obviously, everyone is profoundly disappointed given what happened. We didn’t have a spectacular World Cup campaign, but we did have a good one. I think we have to move some players. We need some young talent. We need some high-level players coming into Brazilian football to be able to play for the national team in the future. We’re going to manage it,” coach Carlo Ancelotti had said. “We’re going to take this defeat, and we’re going to use it as fuel for the new cycle moving forward,” Ancelotti told reporters post the loss.

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