Wild World Cup trivia — Part III: the psychologist, Garrincha's dog and the trophy that vanished

After two parts filled with global records, it's Brazil's turn to take over the compilation. And, as with almost anything involving the Seleção at World Cups, the stories start serious and end at a level of strangeness only Brazilian football delivers.

The white shirt Brazil never wore again

The 1950 defeat at the Maracanã left a mark deep enough to change the national team's colors. Brazil had played that final in plain white shirts, and the federation decided the kit itself carried some of the blame. A newspaper contest was opened to design a new one, and the winning entry came from a 19-year-old illustrator from southern Brazil, Aldyr Garcia Schlee, who built the palette around the four colors of the national flag. The canary-yellow shirt made its debut in 1954 and never left — it's the same jersey people picture the moment somebody says the word 'Brazil'.

The psychologist who nearly left Pelé and Garrincha at home

Before the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, the CBF did something well ahead of its time: it hired psychologist João Carvalhaes to apply psychotechnical tests to the entire delegation. He produced reports assessing who was mentally ready for the tournament. The problem is that his conclusions were… pretty bold.

• Pelé, 17 years old, was classified as 'too childish' and lacking 'fighting spirit'.
• Garrincha received a below-average intelligence rating and 'zero aggressiveness', with a report saying he would be 'mentally incapable' of handling World Cup pressure.
• Both were deemed unfit for the competition.

Head coach Vicente Feola read the report, filed it away in a drawer and picked both of them anyway. Pelé ended the tournament as one of the great stars, Garrincha was simply unstoppable, and Brazil lifted the country's first-ever World Cup trophy. João Carvalhaes went home as a world champion — it must have been the most uncomfortable flight of his career.

The dog that dribbled the greatest dribbler in the world

1962 World Cup, in Chile. Brazil and England were facing off in the quarterfinals when a dog invaded the pitch. Several players tried to catch the animal and none of them could — the dog dribbled everyone as if the field were his backyard.

Then came Garrincha's turn. The same Garrincha who humiliated whole defensive lines with a hip shimmy. The dog pulled off a body feint so disorienting that the entire stadium burst out laughing. Englishman Jimmy Greaves finally managed to grab the animal — and got a farewell gift in the form of a puddle on his shirt.

"Garrincha felt so sorry for the dog that he adopted the animal, took him back to Brazil and named him 'Bi' — a nod to the second title (bicampeonato) the Seleção would win in that same World Cup."

— Behind the scenes of the 1962 World Cup

The trophy Brazil won forever — and lost another way

The Jules Rimet trophy came with a clear rule: any country that won the World Cup three times would keep the cup permanently. Brazil got the job done in 1970 with the third title in Mexico and brought the trophy home. It should have ended there, on a happy note. But it didn't.

What exists in Brazil today is only a replica. The country that won the trophy forever ended up being the only one that also lost it forever. If that doesn't define our football, nothing does.

Continued in Part IV

Coming up next: Ronaldo's mysterious convulsion on the eve of the 1998 final, the record of appearing at every World Cup since 1930, and the 7–1 that closed a historical cycle in the least pleasant way.