History of the Brazilian Football Shirt
The Story of an Iconic Soccer Shirt - The Little Canary
Aldyr Garcia Schlee may not be known to the vast majority of football followers but his design certainly is. He is the man responsible for one of the most famous creations in sport - the yellow shirt and green collar and cuffs of the Brazilian national football team, nicknamed the Little Canary.
Uruguay Defeat Brazil in 1950 World Cup Final
The 2-1 home defeat to Uruguay in the 1950 World Cup final hit Brazil hard. Losing to near neighbours on home soil was regarded a national humiliation with goalkeeper Moacir Barbosa being vilified for what was deemed a culpable performance. The playing strip was also seen as not sufficiently patriotic with its white body and blue collars not reflecting every colour on the national flag.
As the decade progressed Brazil still suffered from the ignominy of the Uruguayan reverse and a competition was held to design a shirt that encompassed all the colours contained in the national flag - yellow, green, blue and white.
The Design of the Little Canary
Near the Uruguayan border, in a small town named Pelotas, lived 19 year old Aldyr Garcia Schlee. He worked as a newspaper illustrator and entered the competition with a classically simple design. Yellow shirt with green collar and cuffs, blue shorts with white vertical stripe and white socks. In December 1953 he was declared the winner and Brazil wore his creation for the first time in March 1954.
1970 World Cup Winners
The 1970 World Cup was the first to be shown on colour television and the brilliant Brazilian team of Pele, Rivelino, Jairzinho and teammates brought the tournament to vivid, memorable life. The yellow shirt became a romantic symbol of the beautiful game and that team in that tournament wearing that shirt retain a mythical status in the world of football.
Aldyr Garcia Schlee and the History of The Brazilian Football Shirt
Part of the prize for Aldyr Garcia Schlee was a period with the newspaper who supported his design - Correio de Manha. During this period he was provided with rooms shared by the Brazilian football squad. He did not enjoy the experience and soon returned home, finding the player's hedonism superficial and puerile.
In 1964 Brazil suffered a military coup and Aldyr Garcia Schlee, by then a successful academic and journalist, was imprisoned many times and lost his teaching post. He continued to suffer at the hands of the military at the same time as his shirt was becoming the emblem of national pride. As with a number of symbols of national and international repute, the history of the Brazilian football shirt is complicated and opaque.
In later years, Aldyr Garica Schlee became a successful short story writer and still lives in Pelotas. His relationship with his country of birth is strained however with his books selling better in neighbouring Uruguay, an irony for a man who conceived the iconic symbol of a nation obsessed with football.
References
Observer Sport Monthly January 2004 (Observer Books Guardian and Media)
Brazilian Football Shirt
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