Brazil buries a homophobic taboo of almost a century and aligns a footballer with the 24

Brazilian soccer player Gleison Bremer with the shirt he will wear if he plays minutes against Cameroon. Buda Mendes (FIFA)

In this World Cup marked by LGBT+ demands and the controversy over rainbow bracelets, Brazil is about to quietly bury a deep-rooted homophobic taboo.

It will be imposed by FIFA, rather than of their own free will.

Since in Brazil the number 24 is popularly associated in a pejorative way with homosexuality and a supposed lack of manliness, nobody wants the number.

Canarinha has never lined up —or summoned until now— anyone with that number.

That will change this Friday, except for surprise, during the Brazil-Cameroon.

Classified for the eighth, Tite wants to give the substitutes a chance.

The eleven announced by the coach includes Gleison Bremer, number 24. It will be the World Cup debut for the hidden number for almost a century and that of the Brazilian center-back for Italian Juventus.

The aversion to 24 has its origin in a Brazilian lottery, as popular as it is illegal, called

, the game of animals, in which that number corresponds to the deer, which in Portuguese is

and sounds like

, which comes to be the equivalent of the queer insult.

That homophobic prejudice is the reason why Brazil, the only team in the world that has played in every edition of the World Cup since the inaugural one in 1930, has never had a footballer with the 24.

Almost all the players of the

have put themselves in profile in the controversy over the prohibition of homosexuality in Qatar.

Only Richarlison, the star of the debut against Serbia, openly declared his support for the LGTB + cause.

The player exhibits a progressive political conscience that contrasts with the majority of his colleagues, aligned with Bolsonarismo with the prominent role of Neymar, who asked for the vote for the president, Jair Bolsonaro.

Tite included a 24 in the call for the World Cup, and awarded it to the center-back Bremer who plays in Italy, because on this occasion FIFA allowed calling up to 26 players with contiguous numbers.

Until now there were 23 for the World Cups.

Bremer has already made it clear that entering the starting eleven in the World Cup is much more important than the number he will wear on his back: “It's a shirt like any other, the important thing is to be in the World Cup.

The number does not matter, ”he told UOL, a Brazilian media outlet, a few days ago in Qatar.

But for his compatriots it will be something really new because even in the main local league, the Brasileirão, only four of the 20 teams included it in the numbering this season: Corinthians from São Paulo, América-MG from Belo Horizonte, Internacional de Porto Alegre and Santos, Neymar's sports cradle and Pelé's lifelong team.

In recent years, the number 24 has been rearing its head largely thanks to a campaign to vindicate it launched by activists after the death of Kobe Bryant, who with that number reached the top of the NBA.

This game will also be remembered for a record if Dani Alves plays, as planned.

At 39 years old, no one that old has played in a World Cup.

The team has done all kinds of maneuvers over the years when in international championships the Canarinha was forced to summon the detested number.

The most common, placing it on a player with a remote chance of playing a single minute.

And sometimes he has resorted to very crude tricks.

In the last Copa América, held in Brazil, the host team jumped from 23 to 25 while the rest of the teams respected the numbering.

Brazil legalized gay marriage more than a decade ago, same-sex couples can adopt children, and homophobia has been a crime since 2019. It also has an openly homophobic president, Jair Bolsonaro. And it is one of the countries in the world where transsexuals are more visible and where they are killed the most.

Some Brazilians take their aversion to 24 off the pitch.

They avoid seat 24 on the bus, the cinema or the theater, even living on that floor or they say they are 23+1 years old,

Futsal player and LGBT+ activist Bernardo Gonsales explained to

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