Brazil: The country that taught us football has forgotten its language

Brazil has lost the magic of its football, which explains the string of failures it has experienced in World Cups over the last 24 years.

There was a time when the Brazilian national team didn’t just play football. They reinvented it, decorated it with colors, dressed it with music and turned it into an art form. From the streets of the favelas to the Maracana, the ball flowed like poetry and its people made the world believe that football was more than just a game.

Today, however, the former empress of the sport seems to be looking at herself in the mirror and not recognizing her own face.

The elimination by Norway is not another lost tournament. It is yet another reminder that Brazil has been searching for its way for 24 years without finding it. Since their last world crown in 2002, the wounds have succeeded each other: quarter-finals, disappointments, the historic 7-1 thrashing by Joachim Low's Germany and now a new departure that leaves behind more questions than answers.

The most worrying thing, however, is not the exclusions. It is the loss of identity. Brazil, which once imposed its rhythm, held the ball as a precious object and created football miracles, now seems to be waiting for its opponent and following foreign recipes.

And yet, the talent has not been lost. The country continues to produce great footballers. What is missing is the collective soul. The great teams of history were not simply collections of exceptional athletes. They were communities of ideas, characters and personalities that gave a jersey meaning and purpose.

Perhaps that is why Brazilians are increasingly talking about the famous "pelada", the football of the field. Where imagination, audacity, freedom of expression were born. Where a child first learned to love the ball and then to serve it.

Brazil is not suffering because it has not found the new Pele. It is suffering because it has lost something deeper: its footballing memory.

And this is perhaps its greatest tragedy. Not that it has stopped winning trophies, but that the country that made the entire planet fall in love with football, seems today to be trying to remember why the world fell in love with it.