Brazil President Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva (right) hugs soccer legend Pele as they celebrate Rio De Janeiro's choice as site of the 2016 Olympic Games during the 121st IOC session in Copenhagen Denmark.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) — Brazil's chance to host the 2016 Olympics follows a long, impassioned, and at times frustrating campaign by Latin America's largest nation to reposition itself on the world stage.

The effort by the country's most spectacular city, Rio de Janeiro, to attract the Olympics is seen as part of a broader effort in which Brazil aims to take a leading role in global affairs, which includes becoming a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

The sports-obsessed football power, with a record five World Cup victories, will now organize and host the first Olympic Games ever in South America. Brazil earlier scored a massive sports triumph by hosting the World Cup in 2014.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded the games to Rio after a campaign in which President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva never tired of repeating the slogan: ''This is Brazil's turn.''

''Brazil needs these Olympics,'' said a teary-eyed Lula, who enjoys sky-high popularity of over 80 percent in his seventh year in office, after the news was announced in Copenhagen.

Lula was at the Copenhagen ceremony, and jumped and cheered enthusiastically along with the Brazilian delegation upon hearing the news.

As many as 100,000 people echoed his enthusiasm, partying to the infectious beat of samba music on the sands of Rio's Copacabana beach after learning of their city's victory. An encore party is scheduled for Sunday.

The choice of Rio as host “is not enough, but it helps in creating positive images of a country that has resources” and wishes to muscle onto an international stage already crowded with major powers, international relations expert Amado Cervo told AFP.

“Lula has done very important work on three external fronts,” said Cervo, citing the president's efforts on multilateralism, the ''internationalization of the Brazilian economy'' as Brasilia has encouraged more foreign investment, and his stature as the face of the aspirations of the developing world.

The evolution of the BRIC countries – named for emerging world powerhouses Brazil, Russia, India and China – ''was largely a result of the political will of the Lula administration,'' said Cervo, a professor at the National University of Brasilia.

For Lula meanwhile, the Games will give Brazil some much-needed global clout.

“I always thought that there was something that Brazil lacked. We are a country that has been colonized. Because of this fact, we had an inferiority complex, an obsession that we weren't important,” he said Friday.

Brazil was colonized by the Portuguese from the early 16th century until 1822. It was a constitutional monarchy until 1889, when it became a republic.

Lula had long reminded other leaders that Brazil, the 10th-largest world economy with 190 million people, was gaining its rightful place among the community of nations.