Soccer jerseys are everywhere in football-mad Brazil, often with the numbers of the country's all-time legends: Ronaldo's 9, Pele's 10, Romario's 11.īut one number is off-limits: 24, the focus of a homophobic taboo whose origin story is a wacky roller-coaster ride through more than a century of Brazilian history, winding up with the present - but slowly shifting - anti-gay attitudes that loom large in football today.
