Nayara, from ‘the 7-1 girl’ to a dreamer

SOME 25:58 minutes into the 2014 World Cup semifinal between Brazil and Germany, right after Toni Kroos scored Germany’s fourth goal, TV cameras rested on Nayara Pereira. She was distraught on the stands of Belo Horizonte’s Mineirao Stadium and wept as the were humiliated for all Brazilian fans and all the world to see. On that day, July 8, 2014, the side managed by Luiz Felipe Scolari eventually lost the historic game 7-1 against Germany. And Pereira’s face was engraved in Brazil’s collective memory as the perfect symbol of the country’s grief. Her desperate face was in newspapers around the world, and it also went viral in several memes that made fun of Brazil’s meltdown. Four years after her unexpected and unfortunate moment of fame, Pereira, now 29, told dpa the story behind the pictures. “I live in Rio de Janeiro, and I drove to the Mineirao that day. It took me seven hours to get to Belo Horizonte, and I dropped my things off at the ho- tel and went to the stadium.

“I arrived in the stands early, so my cell phone eventually went dead,” she recalled.

“When the game finished, my phone wasn’t working, and then a friend who was with me told me, ‘Nayara, everyone is saying that you appeared on TV and became a meme,’” she said.

“We went to a bar to grab a bite, and there, indeed, I saw my face frozen on the TV set.” Pereira did not find it offensive. “I understood that I was one of the people who had suffered the most with that defeat.

“Other expressions you saw on the screen showed disappointment, shock. Mine showed utter sadness,” she told

Pereira works for a cell phone company and, after that game, colleagues joked that she had “cold feet,” as Brazilians call people who are jinxed.

However, far from settling into that role, she decided that she needed to restore her good name.

The perfect chance came two years later, when Brazil and Germany clashed once again in the final of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, at Maracana Stadium.

“I got tickets, and I went with the same people with whom I had gone to the Mineirao. I did not tell anyone else I was going to go.

And when we won, in the penalty shootout, I sent off loads of photos and audio messages, telling people that I was at the stadium and that no one could accuse me of jinxing anything anymore,” she said.

But there was more to it than that.

“To prove that my clothes were not jinxed, I went to Maracana wearing the same Brazil shirt I had been wearing at the 7-1. And it worked,” she recalled.

Recently married, Pereira noted that she would have loved to travel to Russia to cheer for Brazil but she opted to stay in Rio because she already spent a lot for her wedding.

“I will watch the games with all my friends, at my place or at a pub. I have great expectations about winning the trophy,” she said.

Pereira still remembers her sudden fame.

“I found it surprising, but I was not offended: in the end, I even found it funny. “Once someone recognised me on the street... I was walking, and I heard one guy tell another: ‘Look, that’s the 7-1 girl.’” – dpa