World Cup Story Feed
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34%. Brazil's lowest World Cup possession rate in history, the entire team was toyed with by Norway for ninety minutes. xG 2.73 vs 0.84, Haaland struck twice in the 79th and 90th minutes, and Neymar's goal in the 10th minute of stoppage time only salvaged a fraction on the scoreboard.
34%. Brazil's lowest World Cup possession rate in history, the entire team toyed with by Norway for ninety minutes. xG 2.73 to 0.84, Haaland struck twice in the 79th and 90th minutes, and Neymar's goal in the 100th minute of stoppage time only salvaged a fraction of the scoreline.
The world's fifth-ranked team lost to the world's twenty-first. 1804 points to 1617 points. The Norwegians touched the grass of the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time in their history, while nailing Brazil to the pillar of shame for their worst result in thirty-six years.
After the match, twenty-five of the twenty-six-man squad each paid for their own plane tickets and flew off to some beach for vacation. Only Danilo, aged thirty-four, sat alone on the official team plane back to Brazil.
And the head coach? Ancelotti did not return with the team. According to reports, he flew to Vancouver.
A foreigner who lost so embarrassingly, and he wasn't fired.
A look at the recent history shows just how abnormal this is.
In 2022, Tite left after losing to Croatia. In 2023, Fernando Diniz was sacked after six matches with two wins, one draw, and three losses, even before the federation could get a permanent coach in place. In 2024, Dorival Júnior lasted fourteen months, losing the Copa América final 4-1 to Argentina, and his contract was torn up on the spot. Five years, five head coaches. Two changes of president.
Romário opened fire on his own channel: "I would have torn up his contract yesterday. Ancelotti absolutely cannot continue as national team head coach after causing this embarrassment and humiliation."
Those words, spoken about any Brazilian coach, would be the federation's standard operating procedure. But not this time.
Ancelotti's contract is locked in until 2030. An annual salary of around ten million euros, the highest among all 32 World Cup head coaches. It is reportedly also laced with a twenty-million-euro buyout clause. Tear up the contract? Fine. The federation has to pay twenty million first.
Behind this account is another person. Samir Chod, forty-one years old, just elected as the new president of the Brazilian Football Confederation in May 2025. His first act was to extend Ancelotti's contract to 2030. At the renewal press conference, he made it clear: "Ancelotti's renewal is a key part of the long-term planning for Brazilian football."
The new president's fire went out by the World Cup round of sixteen. Firing Ancelotti now would be admitting his own path is a failure, and he'd have to pay a massive penalty clause on top of it. Face, and finances, all lost.
So Ancelotti survives. Not because he's done a great job—eleven matches, six wins, two draws, three losses, a win rate just over 50%. Those numbers would have gotten any Brazilian coach fired twice. But he has two things his predecessors didn't: a long-term contract personally signed by the new president, and a buyout clause the federation can't afford to trigger.
Romário can shout "tear up the contract" all he wants, but it can't beat the financial spreadsheets.
Only Danilo was left on the team plane. That image itself is a metaphor for the breakup.
Danilo, Casemiro, Neymar—this generation is basically done with the national team. Vinícius Júnior, Endrick are being pushed to the forefront. The 2028 Copa América, the 2030 World Cup—it all falls on these young guys who haven't proven themselves in major tournaments yet.
Ancelotti posted a message on social media after the match: "The pain today is immense, but our belief in the project we are building remains unchanged."
With a ten-million-euro annual salary, of course the belief can remain unchanged. After saying that, he flew to Vancouver. He didn't return to Brazil to face the twenty-five players who didn't want to be on the same plane as him, nor the domestic media waiting for him to explain that 34% possession rate.
His pain, and the pain of Brazilian fans, have never been on the same level.
This isn't a rebuild. This is Brazilian football betting its last shred of dignity on a foreign coach's contract clause.