In June 1938, while Adolf Hitler completed the annexation of Austria, Benito Mussolini exchanged telegrams with his players, and Spain bled in a civil war that banned its football, a young man from Rio de Janeiro, 1,68 meters tall and with size 36 shoes, became the first global star of Brazilian football—playing barefoot in the mud of Strasbourg, using a bicycle kick in the quarterfinals, and unable to enter the field in the most important semifinal of his life. The 1938 World Cup, held in France between June 4th and 19th, was the last before the greatest conflict in human history, and the truest portrait of a continent that had already begun to collapse. Leônidas da Silva, the "Black Diamond," was not only the best player and top scorer of the competition: he was the first Black athlete to have his image commercially exploited by a major brand and the symbol of an era that football would never repeat.
The tournament brought together only 15 national teams, and even then, the teams were plagued by absences, political traumas, and boycotts. Argentina and Uruguay refused to participate because FIFA insisted on holding the tournament in Europe for the second consecutive time, ignoring the alternating host cities demanded by the South Americans. Spain was forbidden from existing due to the civil war. Austria had simply been wiped off the map by the Nazis three months before the opening whistle. When the ball started rolling at the Stade de la Meinau in Strasbourg, the world was unknowingly preparing to witness both the beginning of a legend and the twilight of an era.
What those weeks in June in France held was one of the most devastating historical contradictions: never had football been so beautiful and so threatened at the same time. Leônidas would score goals barefoot and one with a bicycle kick that the referee disallowed because he had never seen anything like it. A match between Brazil and Czechoslovakia would go down in history as the most violent of the competition. An Italian scored a penalty while holding his shorts in his hands. And an Austrian star would be found dead months later after refusing to wear the Nazi Germany jersey. The 1938 World Cup was, at the same time, a football tournament and a historical document.
A portrait of a world that no longer exists: why the 1938 World Cup is unique in history.
Well, the 1938 World Cup is often described by historians and sports journalists as a true reflection of an irretrievable era. Not only because of the political context, but also because of the tournament's composition itself. No World Cup before or since has concentrated so many political events directly connected to the competition. Spain, which had a promising team, was forced to withdraw from the qualifiers due to the Civil War. The Austrian federation was dissolved 80 days before the tournament's opening after the country's annexation by Nazi Germany. Italy played in black, symbolizing Mussolini's fascist regime. And even England didn't consider participating, as they still considered the World Cup an insignificant tournament.
Shortly after Italy's victory in the final in June of that year, Europe would plunge into a war that would engulf the world and completely change the course of history. The Jules Rimet trophy, incidentally, only survived the war because the Italian vice-president of FIFA, Ottorino Barassi, hid it in a shoebox under his bed, thus saving it from falling into the wrong hands. A shame for the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation), which would later lose the trophy in a robbery, and further proof that simplicity is the greatest of all sophistications, as Leonardo da Vinci taught.
How the “Anschluss” silenced powerful Austria
Considered one of the favorites to win the competition, the Austrian national team played a refined, technical style of football, far ahead of its time. These characteristics earned them the nickname "Wunderteam" (Wonder Team). The team, which according to European newspapers played "champagne football," strung together 14 consecutive victories against different European teams until March 12, 1938, when it all ended. With the "Anschluss," the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in March 1938, the Austrian national team was dissolved.
This left FIFA in a regulatory impasse, as Austria was already on the schedule. The tournament was reduced to only 15 teams, and Sweden, who were scheduled to face Austria in the first round, automatically advanced to the quarterfinals, in the only "walkover" in World Cup history.
The sad end of the "Mozart of football"
With the territory absorbed by the Third Reich, the Austrian national team was summarily dissolved and its players were forced to represent Germany in the World Cup, destroying one of the most beautiful teams in European football. Not everyone, however, accepted playing alongside the Nazis. Among them was Matthias Sindelar, the greatest player in the history of Austrian football. Possessing enormous technical skill, he was called... Der PapiereneHe was nicknamed "The Paper Man," due to his lean and elegant physique. He was the leader and symbol of the Wunderteam.
Officially, he cited health problems as the reason for not playing, but many believe his stance was a deliberate act of resistance. The price of such dignity was quickly exacted. Sindelar opened a café in Vienna and began to be persecuted by the Gestapo for his refusal to display any kind of Nazi propaganda in his establishment. On January 23, 1939, Sindelar was found dead in his apartment alongside his Italian girlfriend, Camilla Castagnola. According to the official, and Nazi, autopsy report,ausa mortis It was asphyxiation by carbon monoxide. But the accident version never convinced anyone who knew his story.
The birth of a global star
Leônidas da Silva was no newcomer to the World Cup. He played against Spain in the 1934 World Cup and scored Brazil's only goal in the match, which ended 3-1 and eliminated Brazil from that competition. In 1938 he would find worldwide acclaim. One of his nicknames, "Rubber Man," was not just picturesque; it was an attempt to describe something that the sporting vocabularies of the time simply lacked the tools to explain.
His muscular flexibility was extraordinary, allowing him to assume positions during free kicks that seemed anatomically impossible. The bicycle kick – a backheel shot towards the goal with the ball in the air – became his trademark. In the famous game against Poland, which we will discuss later, he even scored a bicycle kick goal. But the referee disallowed the play because he had never seen it before.
The Legend of the Strasbourg Mud
Leônidas' bicycle kick goal may have been disallowed, but in return, he would do something even more unbelievable in what became known as one of the most epic games in football history. On June 5, 1938, at the Stade de la Meinau in Strasbourg, Brazil faced Poland in a downpour that turned the field into a mud pit.
It was essentially an 11-goal scrimmage on a pitch in such poor condition that it would never be cleared for a match today. Brazil won 6-5, with three goals from Leônidas, two from Perácio, and one from Romeu. Poland responded with one goal from Szerfke and four from Willimowski, a record only surpassed in 1994 by the Russian Oleg Salenko. The dark side of the story is that the Polish striker decided to defend Germany during the war, and after the defeat, he was considered a traitor in his country.
In contrast, Leônidas scored one of his three goals in a sensational way: barefoot! It was never known for sure whether his boot broke or slipped in the mud. Instead of interrupting the game, the Brazilian striker, accustomed to street football, simply continued the play without one of his boots.
The “Battle of Bordeaux”
On June 12, 1938, the Stade du Parc Lescure in Bordeaux became the stage for a Brazil vs. Czechoslovakia match that became known as one of the most legendary and brutal clashes in World Cup history: three expulsions and 14 injuries, two of whom suffered fractures: goalkeeper Plánička, with a broken arm, and striker Nejedlý, with a fractured leg.
The 1-1 draw forced a replay two days later. The number of expulsions was only surpassed 68 years later, in the 2006 match between Portugal and the Netherlands, which saw four players receive a red card. Leônidas scored Brazil's only goal in the draw, but left the replay weakened by the accumulated fouls.
Due to one of the most bizarre decisions in Brazilian football, that was Leônidas' last game in that World Cup. His goals, dribbles, and improvisations caught the attention of the European press, which guaranteed him international recognition.
For the first time, a Brazilian player became a global football celebrity. Before Pelé, Garrincha, or Zico, it was Leônidas who introduced the world to the idea of Brazilian football as an artistic spectacle. His success helped create Brazil's international image as a country of dribbling and creativity on the field.
The Fatal Decision
In the semi-final against Italy in Marseille, coach Adhemar Pimenta made the controversial decision to rest Leônidas da Silva and striker Tim, claiming that both were injured or too physically exhausted after the grueling "Battle of Bordeaux". And this caused a lot of controversy for a long time.
The version that circulated throughout the country at the time was that the Brazilian coaching staff already considered victory against Italy a certainty, even planning the trip to Paris before playing the semi-final. But the reality was harsher than simply finding someone to blame.
Leonidas himself wrote to the newspapers that he was weakened by the beating he had suffered in the two games against Czechoslovakia. And that game against Italy was no ordinary game.
"Il Vecchio Maestro" and a goal while holding his shorts with his hands.
The Brazil vs. Italy match played on June 16, 1938, was one of the greatest and funniest classics in the history of world football. In charge of... Azzurra There was Vittorio Pozo, one of the greatest football coaches of all time, known as "Il Vecchio Maestro" and the only one to win two consecutive World Cups to date.
His reputation, however, was tarnished by his right-wing ideas and close ties to Mussolini, who would interfere in games and reprimand the coach and players. His membership in the Fascist Party was never proven. But, to give an idea of how badly his image had been damaged after the war, the proposal to name the stadium in his hometown of Turin, built for the 1990 World Cup, after him was rejected, and the field was named Delle Alpi.
But the best part of that game was one of the most hilarious episodes in World Cup history. After a hard foul by Domingos da Guia on Silvio Piola, the referee awarded a penalty against Brazil. As he prepared to take the kick, the Italian captain Giuseppe Meazza decided to tighten his shorts, but ended up breaking the drawstring.
So, with his hand on his hip to hold up his shorts, he converted the penalty, into the top right corner. Celebrating the goal, Meazza raised both arms and let his shorts fall down, in a hilarious scene that must have caused many of the ladies in the stands to faint. Witnesses say that even Walter, the Brazilian goalkeeper, burst into laughter.
Goalscorer and pioneer of sports marketing.
Leônidas lost that World Cup, but he emerged as the tournament's best player, top scorer with seven goals, and, at a time when the concept of "image rights" barely existed, he inadvertently became the precursor to all modern sports marketing. The story began when the crunchy milk chocolate from the traditional manufacturer Lacta was launched on the Brazilian market in 1932 with the simple name of Chocolate Lacta. In 1938, Leônidas' fame in the World Cup inspired the company to rename the product Diamante Negro, another of his nicknames.
By today's standards, the negotiation borders on the absurd. Lacta's management didn't even know how much they should pay the player. They ended up closing the deal for two contos de réis, which, converted to today's values, would be something like a paltry 250 reais. And Leônidas didn't even like the chocolate that bore his name. Due to his success on the field, the former striker was also the face of brands like Kolynos, Emagrina, Sudar cigarettes, and even had a line of watches bearing his name. Most of these are now in the past, but Diamante Negro remains a commercial success in Brazil to this day.
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