The ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvawith 47.9% of the valid votes in the elections this Sunday in Brazil, will have to define the Presidency in a second round with the current president, Jair Bolsonarowhich obtained 43.7%, according to official data.
According to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), after having been scrutinized 96.9%, no candidate will mathematically achieve more than half of the votes, a bar that is needed to guarantee the election without the need for a second round, and Bolsonaro he will no longer be able to beat Lula.
Lula, fan of Corinthians
Lula, a 76-year-old former metal worker who co-founded the Workers’ Party and led the country between 2003 and 2010, has had a close relationship with soccer.
Well remembered is his speech in October 2009 in Copenhagen that ended up convincing the IOC members to award the Olympic Games to Rio, which were held in Rio in 2016, after beating Madrid in the final vote 66-32 .
But Lula da Silva is also an admirer of Garrincha and a recognized fan of the club. Corinthianswith a working-class tradition and the second most popular club in Brazil after Flamengo, and where the Colombian played Freddy Rincon.
Lula, who left the presidency with an approval rating above 80% but whose image was tarnished by the Lava Jato corruption scandal, served a sentence for corruption that, before being annulled by the supreme court for procedural problems, kept him year and half prisoner and removed him from the election in 2018.
His first Sunday in prison, he saw on TV how the players of his beloved Corinthians came out to beat Palmeiras with a banner that said Forza Lula.
His last hours in freedom were spent in the company of Vanderlei Luxemburg, the former coach of the Canarinha team and Real Madrid.
“If I were Argentine, I would be a Peronist and from Boca,” he said on one of the visits to Buenos Aires during his presidency.
Bolsonaro, passion for Palmeiras
On the other hand, as if it were an intense São Paulo classic, Bolsonaro is a self-confessed fan of the club Palm trees.
Although Bolsonaro has posed more than once with different soccer jerseys, from various Brazilian teams such as Flamengo, Fluminense, Sport Recife, Santos, Vasco Da Gama and Guildit is known that his is Verdao, although it has not been his only official team.
In his childhood he was a fan of the club Botafogo of Rio de Janeirobut over time he had a greater affinity for Palmeiras, whom he has accompanied in several of his most important matches.
Before and during his previous presidential campaign, he toured different stadiums in Brazil and watched many games of different teams, and he had no problem posing with each of the jerseys.
divided footballers
Since Neymar even Paulinho or Rivaldo, soccer players and old Brazilian glories have declared their vote for the presidential elections in the last hours, divided between the progressive ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the far-right president Jair
Bolsonaro.
“I and my family are in favor of Bolsonaro. Do your part too. God, country, family and freedom. We are together,” said Rivaldo, a former player for Deportivo de La Coruña and Barcelona, who went to vote this Sunday with the shirt of the national team, as the president has requested, as published on his social networks.
Neymar, the top star of the Brazilian team, was one of the first to fully enter this polarized campaign with a video in which he danced to the chords of a musical theme in support of the current head of state, who aspires to re-election. “Vote, vote and confirm: 22 is Bolsonaro,” said the song, alluding to the number that Brazilians must type if they want to vote for the retired Army captain, who on the eve of the elections visited the Neymar Institute, near the city of Santos .
From there, other soccer players have published their political preferences with a view to the presidential race on their social networks.
Paulinho, from German Bayer Leverkusen, is one of them. “Love for the country, damn it. Love for the people. If it’s not in the name of the people, it’s not in the name of the country. Lula in the first round! Bozo out (for Bolsonaro),” said the young midfielder. Likewise, he supported the leader of the Workers’ Party (PT), the former Real Madrid coach and coach Vanderlei Luxemburg, who called Bolsonaro a “sociopath.”
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