After Brazil was knocked out of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, many fans were quick to blame the team’s poor performance on the evangelical beliefs of some players. On social media, some complained that Brazil’s team was much better when its players were “behaving like Catholics” and that “evangelical Protestant sterilization has flattened their ball, ruined their samba and obliterated their swag.”

While such commentary can be described as semi-serious soccer banter, it speaks to the broader religious shifts taking place in Latin America. Protestants (often referred as evangélicos) in Latin America now comprise about 11 per cent of the population — a notable change in a region where a larger share of Christians traditionally self-identified as Roman Catholic.

The most significant expression of Protestantism is people affiliated with Pentecostal or Charismatic churches. These affiliations represent about 30 per cent of the Latin America’s population, with some 195 million adherents.

“Pentecostal” often refers to Christian movements that emphasize “speaking in tongues” as the initial sign of the “baptism in the Holy Spirit,” and direct, personal experiences with God. “Charismatic” (or “neo-pentecostal”) refers to expressions of this mode of faith within both newer religious movements and traditional mainline churches, including in Catholicism, Anglicanism and Orthodox Christianity.

Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity has a significant presence in the Global South. It’s experienced explosive growth with 676 million adherents in 2026 (one in four Christians globally) and is expected to reach 1.1. billion in 2075 (one in three Christians globally).

My teaching and scholarship focus on the study of global Pentecostal and Charismatic........

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