Netherlands ousts Brazil from World Cup; Nike’s soccer stars no longer ‘writing the future’

Brazil was at one time the favorite to win this year’s World Cup, but it is not to be. The men in orange from the Netherlands just stopped them cold in a 2-1 quarter-finals victory, helped along by a Brazilian ‘own goal’ in the second half. There have been other upsets in the Cup, but this is the greatest upset so far in the competition.

Our Marcelo Ballve wrote a beautiful article for New America Media talking about how Brazilian football fans were nervous about the prospects for their nation’s storied team in the World Cup. Looks like Brazil’s own doubters about their less than beautiful game players were right.

But the defeat also means another thing: virtually all of Nike’s World Cup footballers in their ‘Write the Future’ ad campaign have been eliminated. Let’s go through the list of international football stars featured in the below commercial:

Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal, defeated by Spain in round of 16

Didier Drogba, Cote d’Ivoire, fell in group play

Wayne Rooney, England, lost to Germany in round of 16 (Theo Walcott cameos, but did not play on the World Cup team)

Fabio Cannavaro, Italy, fell in group play

Franck Ribery, Patrice Evra, France, fell in group play

Ronaldinho, Thiago Silva, Brazil, fell to the Netherlands in quarter-finals

Landon Donovan, Tim Howard, USA, defeated by Ghana in round of 16

Three Spanish players featured in the commercial, Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas, and Gerard Pique, are still in the running. But it’s not like these guys are prominently featured in the Nike spot as the guys that we’d expect to be “writing the future.”

Instead, it would appear that Nike picked a bunch of losers to promote their shorts, jerseys, and cleats, while the bad-asses from Argentina, Germany, Holland, Ghana, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Spain are the ones who are still kicking it out in international play.

Will they get their Nike commercial in 2014?