Luiz Henrique is set to make his World Cup debut for the Seleção Brasileira against Marrocos on Saturday, 13, in Brazil’s opening match of the tournament. He is likely to begin on the bench, but his first appearance in a Copa do Mundo now feels close enough to touch.
Brazil face Marrocos at 19h, and the timing gives the moment its force: this is the first chance Luiz Henrique has had to step onto the World Cup stage after a route that started far from it. Carlo Ancelotti has used him more often in recent friendlies, a sign that the winger has moved into the discussion for a place in the team’s plans.
Marcos Cipriano, who watched that path unfold from the start, said the reality has still not fully landed. “A ficha ainda não caiu,” he said, adding that Luiz Henrique is a boy he saw grow up and one who has reached the dream of thousands of Brazilians. For a family that carried the player from Petrópolis to the top level, the wait has been long enough that even a World Cup call-up can still feel unreal.
The road explains why. Luiz Henrique was born in Petrópolis and took his first steps in football as a child in the fields of Vale do Carangola. He was revealed in the youth categories of Fluminense, where Cipriano remembers his Sub-12 debut as the day he scored a penalty goal. From there he passed through Spanish football, later won the Libertadores and the Campeonato Brasileiro with Botafogo in 2024, and now plays for Zenit in Russia.
That rise nearly stalled before it began. Cipriano said Luiz Henrique always spoke as if football was the only path he would take, with the ball at his feet nearly all the time, but the family’s humble conditions made the journey difficult. He also recalled that Luiz Henrique almost quit football to focus on judô because the distance between Petrópolis and Xerém made the routine too hard to sustain. “Deu tudo certo,” Cipriano said. The line fits not because everything was easy, but because it was not.
The last two friendlies showed how far Luiz Henrique has come inside the squad. He started against Panamá on 31 May in Brazil’s 6-2 win, then began on the bench against Egito on 6 June and entered at halftime in a 2-1 victory. That mix of starts and substitute appearances points to a player trusted enough to be in the match plan, even if the first World Cup minutes against Marrocos may still arrive from the sideline.
For now, the question is no longer whether Luiz Henrique belongs in the Seleção Brasileira picture. It is whether Saturday’s 19h kickoff brings the first World Cup minutes for a player whose path began in Petrópolis, survived doubt, and has carried him to the edge of the biggest stage in the sport.
