Taylor Swift is a good luck charm for soccer team hosting Travis Kelce's 1st game in Brazil

SAO PAULO (AP) — Taylor Swift is very likely not aware of it, but she's considered a good luck charm for the Brazilian soccer team that hosted Friday's game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers.

The unlikely connection between the pop superstar — whose fiancé is Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce — and one of the most popular clubs in soccer-mad Brazil lies in the release date of her albums dating to 2006. Corinthians has gone unbeaten in all but one game played right before each album release since then and all but one right after.

It all started as a joke about five years ago, but it has developed into a superstition for local fans.

Until last year, Corinthians won 13 matches and drew seven in such instances. Some were against bitter rival Palmeiras and Brazilian social media was flooded with memes and montages of Swift wearing black and white — Corinthians' colors.

Many Corinthians fans could have tossed their expectations after their team lost both the match prior to the release of “The Tortured Poets Department” and the one following. But the NFL game in Sao Paulo has kept the Swiftie vibe alive among many local supporters, even though she was nowhere to be seen in Brazil on Friday night.

“I laughed at first, but there’s more coincidences. Taylor’s first contract was signed on Sept. 1, that’s the same day Corinthians was founded in 1910,” said Rebeca Gois, 32, a marketing writer who lives near the stadium and is a Swift fan. “It has become a thing. Whenever there’s a new album, we have a double joy; new Taylor songs and Corinthians unbeaten before and after that.”

That long run has encouraged Corinthians fans to think of the singer as an honorary supporter. Some have worn Swift costumes during games.

Gavioes da Fiel, a Corinthians-linked samba school that parades in Sao Paulo's Carnival, jokingly invited Swift to join them in the festivities in 2022.

Swift was in Brazil in 2012 to promote her album “Red” and then in 2023 with six concerts in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo during the Eras Tour. She has yet to appear at Corinthians stadium.

Nataly Nascimento, a hardcore Corinthians Swiftie, said the trend got a boost after Swift had all her three concerts in Sao Paulo at the Allianz Parque, the stadium of their archrival Palmeiras.

“People started to look for that connection to tease Palmeiras fans. And then Corinthians fans started finding those links,” said Nascimento, a 25-year-old teacher who lives in Brazil's Northeast and won't attend. “But there's something bigger. In the same way that Corinthians fans are much more passionate about their club, Swifties feel that about Taylor. It is mystical.”

Asked whether Corinthians fans can expect the connection to return after the two defeats last year, Nascimento said fans have adapted their narrative since.

“Some said it was all over, but we didn't let her go. What actually happened was that we were doing so badly last year that not even Taylor could save us,” she said.

Swift's next album, “The Life of a Show Girl,” will be released on Oct. 3. Corinthians, currently lagging in the 12th position of the Brazilian league with 26 points after 22 matches, will take on Southern rival Internacional two days prior to the launch and then host Sao Paulo countryside team one day after the release.

Fans like lawyer Sidney Abreu, 45, couldn't care less about the NFL and Swift's music, but he had planned to watch part of Friday's game in the hopes the singer attended so the superstition can be revamped with her presence at the stadium.

“As long as Corinthians wins those matches, she can come here and release her albums whenever she likes,” he said.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

FILE - Corinthians soccer fans cheer in Neo Quimica arena during a Brazilian soccer league match between Corinthians and Flamengo in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sept. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)

FILE - Andre Ramalho of Brazil's Corinthians, left, and Adrian Martinez of Argentina's Racing Club battle for the ball during a Copa Sudamericana semifinal first leg soccer match at Neo Quimica arena in Sao Paulo, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)

FILE - Fans cheer on Brazil's Corinthians during a Copa Sudamericana Group F soccer match against Argentina's Argentinos Juniors at Neo Quimica Arena in Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)

FILE - Andre Carrillo of Brazil's Corinthians celebrates scoring his side's opening goal against Venezuela's Universidad Central during a Copa Libertadores soccer match in Caracas, Venezuela, Feb. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Jesus Vargas, File)

Taylor Swift, front right, sits with fiance Travis Kelce, second from front left, as they watch the first half of an NCAA college football game between Cincinnati and Nebraska, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025, at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce speaks during a press conference ahead of a NFL football game against Los Angeles Chargers, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

FILE - Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, right, is congratulated by Taylor Swift as they celebrate the Chiefs victory over the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship NFL football game, Jan. 26, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — One figure looms large ahead of Uganda's elections Thursday, although he is not on the ballot: the president's son and military commander, Muhoozi Kainerugaba.

Kainerugaba, long believed to be the eventual successor, stood down for his father, President Yoweri Museveni, who is seeking a seventh term that would bring him closer to five decades in power.

Yet Kainerugaba, a four-star general, remains a key figure in Ugandan politics as the chief enforcer of his father’s rule in this east African country. He is the top military commander, appointed by his father nearly two years ago after Kainerugaba told a political rally he was ready to lead.

Kainerugaba’s appointment as army chief put his political campaign on hold — a least, critics say, for as long as Museveni still wants to stay.

Many Ugandans are now resigned to the prospect of hereditary rule, once vehemently denied by government officials who said claims of a secret “Muhoozi Project” for leadership were false and malicious.

Kainerugaba himself has been honest about his presidential hopes since at least 2023 and openly says he expects to succeed his father.

“I will be President of Uganda after my father,” he said in 2023, writing on social platform X. “Those fighting the truth will be very disappointed.”

The president’s son is more powerful than ever, his allies strategically deployed in command positions across the security services. As the presumed heir to the presidency, he is the recipient of loyalty pledges from candidates seeking minor political offices.

Kainerugaba joined the army in the late 1990s, and his fast rise to the top of the armed forces proved controversial.

In February 2024, a month before Kainerugaba was named army chief, the president officially delegated some of his authority as commander-in-chief to the head of the military.

Exercising authority previously reserved for the president, including promoting army officers of high rank and creating new army departments, Kainerugaba is more powerful than any army chief before him, said Mwambutsya Ndebesa, a political historian at Uganda’s Makerere University, adding that family rule appears inevitable.

“Honestly, I don’t see a way out through constitutional means,” he said.

Elections, he said, “is just wasting time, legitimizing authority but not intended as a democratic goal... Any change from Museveni will be determined by the military high command.”

With Museveni not saying when he would retire, a personality cult around Kainerugaba has emerged. Some Ugandans stage public celebrations of his birthday. Campaign posters of many seeking parliamentary seats often feature the emblem of Kainerugaba’s political group, the Patriotic League of Uganda. Speaker of Parliament Anita Among last year called Kainerugaba “God the Son."

The speaker's comments underscored the political rise of Kainerugaba in a country where the military is the most powerful institution and Museveni has no recognizable successors in the upper ranks of his party, the National Resistance Movement.

Some believe Kainerugaba is poised to take over in the event of a disorderly transition from Museveni, who is 81. One critic, ruminating on Kainerugaba’s military rank, has been urging the son to depose his father.

“I have endlessly appealed to Muhoozi Kainerugaba to, at least, pretend to coup his dad, become the opposition hero, and accuse the old man of all the crimes the general Kampala public accuses him of,” Yusuf Serunkuma, an academic and independent analyst, wrote in the local Observer newspaper last year.

“Sadly, Kainerugaba hasn’t heeded my calls thus far. That he is being pampered by his father to the presidency doesn’t look good at all.”

Kainerugaba’s supporters say he is humble in private and critical of the corruption that has plagued the Museveni government. They also say he offers Uganda the opportunity of a peaceful transfer of political power in a country that has not had one since independence from British colonial rule in 1962.

In addition to opposing family rule, his critics point out that Kainerugaba has behaved badly in recent years as the author of often-offensive tweets.

He has threatened to behead Bobi Wine, a presidential candidate who is the most prominent opposition figure in Uganda. He has said the opposition figure Kizza Besigye, jailed over alleged treason charges, should be hanged "in broad daylight” for allegedly plotting to kill Museveni. And he has appeared to confound even his father, who briefly removed him from his military duties in 2022 when Kainerugaba threatened on X to capture the Kenyan capital of Nairobi in two weeks.

Wine said in a recent interview with The Associated Press that Kainerugaba's army "has largely taken over the election.” Wine said his supporters are the victims of violence, including beatings, perpetrated by soldiers.

In its most recent dispatch ahead of voting, Amnesty International said the security forces were engaging in a “brutal campaign of repression.” It cited one event at a rally by Wine’s party, the National Unity Platform, in eastern Uganda on Nov. 28, when one man died after the military blocked an exit and open fired on the crowd.

It was not possible to get a comment from Kainerugaba, who rarely gives interviews.

Frank Gashumba, a Kainerugaba ally and vice chairman of the Patriotic League of Uganda, said Wine was exaggerating the threat against him. “Nobody is touching him,” he said. “He’s lacking the limelight.”

Only one senior member of the president’s party has publicly pushed back against hereditary rule.

Kahinda Otafiire, a retired major general who is among those who were by Museveni’s side when he first took power by force after a guerrilla war in 1986, has urged Kainerugaba to seek leadership on his own merits rather than as his father’s son.

“If you say so-and-so’s son should take over from the father, his son will also want to take over from his grandfather. Then there will be Sultan No. 1, Sultan No. 2, and then the whole essence of democracy, for which we fought, will be lost," Otafiire, who serves as Uganda's interior minister, told local broadcaster NBS last year.

"Let there be fair competition, including Gen. Muhoozi. Let him prove to Ugandans that he is capable, not as Museveni’s son but as he, Muhoozi, who is competent to manage the country.”

Follow AP’s Africa coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

FILE - Lt. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, attends a "thanksgiving" ceremony in Entebbe, Uganda, May 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda, File)