The Los Angeles Chargers will play their 2025 season opener in São Paulo, Brazil, the NFL said Wednesday.
Los Angeles will be the designated home team for the second regular-season game in the South American country. Last season, the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers opened the season in São Paulo at Corinthians Arena.
The game will be played on Friday, Sept. 5. Los Angeles’ opponent will be announced when the league releases its full schedule this spring.
It’s one of a growing number of international games on the schedule for 2025. The initial plan was to play eight next year (only seven have been confirmed) and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has said he envisions 16 international games in the future if the NFL expands to an 18-game regular season.
The NFL will play three games in London next year, one in Berlin, one in Madrid and one in Dublin.
The New York Jets, Jacksonville Jaguars and Cleveland Browns are the home teams in London, the Indianapolis Colts are tabbed for Berlin, the Miami Dolphins will host the Madrid game and the Pittsburgh Steelers will host in Dublin.
The Chargers will become the first NFL team to play on five continents, the league said. They played a preseason game against the Cardinals in Tokyo in 1976 and played preseason games in Berlin, Tokyo and Sydney in the 1990s. They’ve also played in London and Mexico City.
Who might the Chargers play in Brazil?
The Chargers are due for an international game. They last hosted a game on foreign soil in 2019, when they played the Kansas City Chiefs in Mexico City. They have not hosted a game outside North America since 2018, when they played the Tennessee Titans at Wembley Stadium in London. The Chargers have also avoided playing in any international games as a road team since 2008. They faced the New Orleans Saints that year in London in what was the second-ever regular season game of the NFL’s International Series. The Chargers have nine home games in 2025, so even with this international home game, they will still host eight games at SoFi Stadium.
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Who will the Chargers be playing? A couple teams can be ruled out as potential opponents in Brazil. The Philadelphia Eagles, one of the Chargers’ nine home opponents in 2025, hosted the Brazil game last year against the Green Bay Packers. The Colts, another scheduled home opponent for the Chargers in 2025, have already been announced as the host team in the NFL’s Germany game in Berlin. With the Steelers hosting a game in Ireland, that removes them from consideration.
The leaves six opponents: The Chiefs, the Las Vegas Raiders, the Denver Broncos, the Washington Commanders, the Minnesota Vikings and the Houston Texans. The Vikings hosted a game in London last year. The Chiefs hosted a game in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2023.
(Photo: Wagner Meier / Getty Images)
