The most decorated player in women’s soccer, Marta Vieira da Silva has been labelled the female equivalent of Pele.
She already stands alongside Mia Hamm as the best player the women’s game has ever seen, such is her phenomenal technique, speed on the ball and goalscoring prowess.
Quick Facts:
Rise to Prominence:
When Marta was growing up in Dois Riachos, a poor town in the north-east of Brazil, she faced a fight just to get on a soccer pitch, such were the sexist attitudes among the boys she played alongside.
Even Marta’s brother was opposed to her playing as he sought to protect his young sibling from the insults she attracted for having the audacity to join in with the boys. She was ultimately banned from playing with the boys before her big break arrived as a 14-year-old when she was handed a trial with Vasco da Gama, impressed sufficiently, and was taken on.
But Vasco ceased operation of its professional women’s team and on the back of an impressive 2003 World Cup debut at just 17, she signed for Swedish club Umea IK, becoming the first Brazilian woman to play professionally in Europe.
Marta won four consecutive league titles and one cup in Sweden, while also helping Umea to the UEFA Women’s Cup in her first season at the club. She scored three goals over two legs in a resounding 8-0 victory over Frankfurt in the final.
“The cold was a challenge”, she told the Guardian in 2007. “I went from 35 degrees every day in Brazil to a place where it reaches minus 22 in the winter”.
This did not prevent her scoring around a goal a game for the club as she excelled in her new surroundings.
Marta has won five consecutive FIFA World Player of the Year awards, and on the day of receiving the 2009 honor, she announced her move to Los Angeles Sol.
Top scorer as the club became regular season champions in 2009, Marta also helped Los Angeles Sol to the WPS Championship Final where the team was beaten by Sky Blue FC. Her stay in America with Los Angeles Sol, FC Gold Pride and currently Western New York Splash has been interspersed with loan spells in her homeland with Santos where she won the Women’s Copa Libertadores and Brazilian Cup in 2009.
Marta’s brief spell with Gold Pride in 2010 saw her appear in all 24 games and score 19 goals as the team won the WPS Championship.
International Career:
The striker has won the Pan American Games (2003 and 2007) and the South American Women's Football Championship (2003 and 2010) with Brazil.
However, a World Cup still eludes her. After bursting onto the World Cup scene in 2003, the following tournament saw Marta finish as the seven-goal top scorer and named best player, but she would miss a crucial penalty in a 2-0 defeat to Germany in the final.
Four years later Marta, who also boasts a silver medal from the 2008 Olympics, scored four goals and made two others before Brazil were knocked out in the World Cup quarter finals by the United States.
The 2015 edition should see Marta break the all-time scoring record at the World Cup because she is currently tied with Birgit Prinz on 14 goals.
