How World Cup football jerseys became political fashion in Latin America

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When he travels abroad, he carefully packs Brazil's yellow-and-green jersey in his suitcase. It's a way of carrying a piece of his country with him wherever he goes. "Every time that someone recognises the Brazilian football shirt, they come to me with a smile on their face, saying really good things about Brazil," Duarte, 39, says proudly. He loves that it opens conversations about Brazil’s culture, from carnival and samba to football legends like Neymar and Pele. But back home in Brazil, he has watched the jersey get caught in a political tug-of-war. Brazil's far right has sought to claim the uniform, despite backlash from the left. "I feel sad about it because it's a matter of the politicians taking advantage of the shirt," he told Al Jazeera. "And both sides do these kinds of things." Brazil's presidential elections are approaching in October. In past races, the yellow jersey became associated with right-wing leader Jair Bolsonaro, who led the country from 2019 to 2023. Now, it's his eldest son Flavio Bolsonaro who is running for the far right. Just last month, he called the yellow shirt "Bolsonaro’s jersey" as his country's team competed in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. But Brazil is not alone in seeing the politicisation of the national kit. Across Latin America, politicians have increasingly sought to associate themselves with football shirts. In Colombia, the national jersey also became central to the campaign of right-wing President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella, who used it to project patriotism and national unity. While Brazil and Colombia have both been eliminated from the World Cup, the battle over the kits continues. "National symbols are a constant source of tension and negotiation," said sociologist Bryan Clift, whose research examines sports, politics and pop culture. He sees football uniforms as a path for politicians to tap into a popular form of nationalism. "In those countries where a football shirt is popular because football occupies the premier sporting place in culture, that shirt can be extremely powerful in terms of imagining yourself as part of a broader collective," Clift said. The power of the jersey is partly linked to the global reach of Latin American football. Brazil, in its cheery yellow jersey, has notched five World Cup victories. Argentina, known for its sky-blue stripes, is a three-time winner. Even Colombia, while it has yet to win the World Cup, has dominated major tournaments like the Copa America. Many of star players from Latin America also go on to compete in Europe's biggest football leagues. That international fanbase can translate into extra support for players when they return to play for their national teams. For Joey D’Urso, author of the 2025 book More Than A Shirt, football has become a key marker of identity for Latin American nations, offering a source of global recognition. "European countries have hundreds of years of history and are often identified by that," D’Urso said. Latin America, by contrast, has been fairly marginal in international conversations about history and economics, he explained. But the region is anything but on the sidelines when it comes to football. D'Urso pointed to Brazil's repeated success at the World Cup. "Brazil has not just mattered but been the most successful country in the world," he said. Experts say the pride and patriotism players elicit on the football pitch has become attractive to political movements seeking to build their own popularity. The football jersey, therefore, can be seen as a ready-made uniform for populist candidates. After all, many football fans will already have a version in their closets. That strategy became key to the successful presidential bid of right-wing newcomer Abelardo de la Espriella, who won Colombia's run-off election last month. Prior to the race, the criminal defence lawyer and menswear entrepreneur was best known for his sharp suits. But on the campaign trail, he swapped his upscale garb for Colombia's yellow jersey, and his supporters followed his example. "We saw it as a symbol that represented our values: unity, strength, patriotism and an absolute love for Colombia," Carlos Suarez, the main strategist for de la Espriella's campaign, told Al Jazeera. "Abelardo's supporters saw in him someone who was genuinely proud to do everything for his country." De la Espriella's campaign focused heavily on security, framing the candidate as a defender of the nation. Suarez saw his use of Colombia's jersey as a way to communicate that idea. "It gave new meaning to a symbol that was already important to Colombians," Suarez said. "In this case, it came to represent unity around a common cause, a team united by the goal of saving Colombia." But critics argued the shirt was being transformed from a shared national emblem into a political one. Left-wing candidate Ivan Cepeda accused de la Espriella of "stealing" Colombia’s national jersey, arguing that it belonged to all Colombians, not one political movement. A Colombian court even ruled de la Espriella should stop using the jersey in campaign activities. Yet, rather than discouraging de la Espriella's supporters, the political backlash appears to strengthen their bond with the shirt. "We were forbidden. They ruled that our candidate could not use it. So, in defiance, we wore it anyway," Johnny Andres, a de la Espriella supporter, told Al Jazeera in the capital Bogota. He feels proud wearing the yellow kit. "This shirt represents the homeland," Andres said. De la Espriella’s campaign also shrugged off the criticism. For Suarez, it was the end result that mattered. "The best response", Suarez said, came "at the ballot box". In Brazil, another far-right leader embraced his country's football jersey during his ascent to the presidency: Jair Bolsonaro. During Bolsonaro's 2018 campaign, the jersey became a common sight at rallies. A former military captain, Bolsonaro used the jersey — bedecked in the colours of the national flag — as a sign of patriotism, conservative values and opposition to the left-wing Workers’ Party. "The national shirt has become symbolic capital," said Marco Bettine, a professor at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. "Whoever successfully associates themselves with it gains access to powerful ideas of patriotism, recognition and belonging." But the politicisation of the Brazilian kit began long before Bolsonaro. Clift, the sports sociologist, traces the shirt’s political significance back to the era of Getulio Vargas, in the mid-20th century. Vargas led Brazil for many years, first as the head of military dictatorship in the 1930s and later as an elected leader in the 1950s. Clift explained that football was part of Vargas's wider nation-building project. His rise to power coincided with the launch of the FIFA World Cup in 1930, and by its third tournament, Brazil was debuting in the semifinals. The yellow jersey had come to represent Brazilian identity as a whole by the 1950s. It was during that decade that Brazil won its first World Cup. "The shirt is a representation of the flag itself. It's its extension," Clift said. "Football, like other popular cultural forms, became a base for national culture that the nation taps into." Politics would intersect with the jersey multiple times in the decades that followed. In 2013, for instance, millions of Brazilians took to the streets to protest the government of then-President Dilma Rousseff, amid rising transportation prices. Many protesters sported the jersey. "Over time, different groups, including political leaders, claimed the shirt and the team’s success to reinforce their own visions of the nation," Clift explained. In Brazil's upcoming election, however, the elder Bolsonaro will not be running. He has been barred from holding public office until 2030, after a court ruled he violated election laws. But Bolsonaro is backing his son Flavio instead. Bettine, who studies football and politics, said the controversy over Bolsonaro and the football jersey goes beyond simple pride in Brazil's sporting successes. "The political dispute is no longer simply about celebrating sporting success," Bettine said. "It is about who has the legitimacy to represent the nation itself." But there has been pushback against the politicisation of Latin America's football jerseys. In Colombia, opposition figures began wearing their country's yellow jersey too, arguing they would not allow one political movement to claim ownership over it. "What we saw was a vulgar appropriation of the Colombia national team shirt by far-right political sectors," Colombian politician Daniel Monroy told Al Jazeera. He and other politicians from the left-wing Historic Pact coalition started wearing the shirt in public, to make a statement about the national symbol. "The three colours of our flag belong to us — and the shirt, the national team, belongs to all of us, not to any one group," he said. "We won’t let it be instrumentalised for politics. The shirt is about memory, awareness and the affirmation that our country is free, sovereign and independent." Some supporters even printed images of Cepeda, the Historic Pact's candidate, and political slogans on their jerseys. A similar backlash played out in Brazil during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which took place days after the country's last presidential race. Bolsonaro had lost his bid for re-election but had refused to publicly concede. Wearing the yellow jersey became a source of tension. "We saw sales of the alternative shirt, the blue shirt, rise because people questioned whether or not they should wear the yellow shirt for fear of representing the right-wing militaristic movements and Bolsonaro himself," Clift said. With Brazil's current presidential race heating up, the national team's jersey is back under the microscope. When Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson Becker wore a pinkish kit during a World Cup group-stage match against Haiti, some on social media interpreted it as a reference to the political left, often represented by the colour red. Still, left-wing voters are not ready to surrender the yellow jersey. Gardennya Linard, a teacher and loyal supporter of the Brazilian national team, believes Bolsonaro's claim on the jersey has grown weaker. "For a few years, the Brazilian national team jersey became politicised, making us feel ashamed to wear it,” said Linard. "The Brazilian left has gradually reclaimed the yellow jersey — whether by adding red symbols or wearing it in its original form — to show that Brazil belongs to Brazilians, not to the Bolsonarista right." Others have tired of the fight over the football kit. Despite expectations for a tense election in October, Duarte — the football shirt salesman — said he won’t let the political machinations interfere with what he loves most. "I'm frustrated with politics, but it's not going to influence my passion for football. This is something that I'm 100 percent sure of," Duarte said. 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