The path taken by women to winning the right to play in a World Cup was the opposite of that taken by men: exactly 61 years separate the debut of the men’s World Cup in 1930 from the first official women’s edition in 1991. In 2023, when the women’s football World Cup reaches its ninth edition and is expected to be historic in terms of attendance and interest, the Football Museum is presenting the temporary exhibition Rainhas de Copas (“Queens of Hearts”), to celebrate the achievements of the sport and its professionals throughout the World Cups. 

Curated by Aira Bonfim, Juliana Cabral, Lu Castro and Silvana Goellner, the exhibition explores stories that are little known to the public until now, bringing images that were restricted to personal collections and will be shown for the first time, as well as data that reveals the greatness of the women who took part in the World Cups and their individual and collective achievements. 

“It’s an important exhibition for reconstructing, for the first time in Brazil, the history of the sport’s biggest event.”

Aira Bonfim (curator) 

The Rainhas de Copas (“Queens of Hearts”) exhibition starts in 1988, when the Experimental Tournament was held in China, the first step in convincing FIFA to organize the World Cup among women’s teams. The competition, however, was not televised, took place under very precarious conditions for the Brazilian national team and is little known to this day. Thus, the exhibition will be an opportunity for the public to see previously unseen moves, as well as images from the players’ collections.   

With the success of the tournament, FIFA finally started planning for the first official World Cup, which took place in 1991, also on Chinese soil. From there, the exhibition builds the history of women’s football over the course of the World Cups, featuring athletes’ accounts, stories and curiosities, highlighting how Brazil participated in each edition. The public will be able to learn about the careers of the queens of women’s football in Brazil, who have forever marked the history of the sport, such as Sissi, Marta, Cristiane and Formiga, among others. 

The exhibition also highlights the female players’ fight for equality. Visitors will discover that, unlike the men’s World Cups, the Women’s Cup has always been marked by demands on the pitch, since the conditions given to the players have always been far inferior to those in the men’s tournaments. It’s worth remembering that until 2015 the Women’s National Team didn’t have its own uniform and played with models adapted from the men’s team.   

The last room of the Queens of Hearts promises great emotions for visitors, who will have an interactive experience and will also be able to see the replica of the Women’s World Cup cup up close.