Welcome back to the Brazil Sports newsletter. This week, with relegated Cruzeiro getting into debt with a priest, we look back at the history of superstition and faith in football, featuring a curious tale about a toad. Also, São Paulo’s Pacaembu stadium turns 80 years old, and we pay tribute to a true temple of football, and an architectural gem. Enjoy your read!
Priests and toads: superstition in Brazilian football
In their unsuccessful fight against relegation in 2019, Belo Horizonte club Cruzeiro hired the services of Reginaldo Muller Pádua, a pai-de-santo. In the Afro-Brazilian religions Umbanda and Candomblé, a...