Rituals, superstitions, and Brazilian football

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 pai-de-santo is a priest figure who is in charge of contacting spiritual deities known as orishas, and administering blessings and counsel.

After employing Mr. Pádua, Cruzeiro beat São Paulo 1-0 and the pai-de-santo received the first installment of the BRL 10,000 fee agreed upon with the club. Cruzeiro then went on to have their best run of the season, going eight games unbeaten and, for the first time in 2019, it appeared they might just escape relegation.

However, after paying Mr. Pádua 60 percent of the agreed value, Cruzeiro were defeated by bottom-of-the-table CSA, and relegation looked near impossible to avoid. The club stopped paying their pai-de-santo and never did manage to recover. When the Brazilian championship starts up again, Cruzeiro will be playing in the second division for the first time in their 99-year history.

And they still have to pay...