Nubank customer watches Brazil win during the FIFA World Cup™, 16 years after becoming the face of the team’s elimination

Doha, Qatar, December 9, 2022 – On July 1, 2006, many Brazilians mourned the elimination of the country’s national team in the quarter-finals of the FIFA World Cup™ in a match against France. Karoline Rodrigues de Oliveira was one of them and became perhaps one of the most famous.

She was watching the match in Alzirão – a place where fans would gather to watch the tournament in Rio de Janeiro – when photographers captured her emotions, from her worried face during a tense match to tears at the end. “I always used to get there early and watch the matches right at the front. When Brazil was eliminated, I started crying and the photographers saw the opportunity to capture my tears”, she remembers.

The next day, Karoline started receiving text messages from friends and family saying she was all over the newspapers – so she went to a newsstand and bought copies of all issues she could find.

Sixteen years later, she found out that Nu launched the contest “You in the FIFA World Cup 2022™ – Believe & Go with Nubank”, in which customers could submit their most remarkable stories about the tournament for a chance to win a trip to Qatar for the 2022 event. Karoline took all the newspapers out of the drawers and sent a video showing them and telling her story. “I could never imagine that I would become a meme in 2006 when the word didn’t even exist, and now I’m here, enjoying the FIFA World Cup™ thanks to this sad but funny story.”

On November 28, Karoline got the chance to watch Brazil win 1 – 0 against Switzerland and classify to the round of 16. Now, all she expects is to take many pictures smiling if the country wins the tournament for the sixth time.