Marta flies the flag for Brazil's women

Marta did not get the nickname ‘Pele in a skirt’ for nothing. The ‘King of Football’ popularised the sport in Brazil, taking his country to the World Cup and receiving the title of ‘Athlete of the Century’. And the world’s greatest women’s player has followed a similar path. With her rare talent, she has become a national treasure and already written her name into the Hall of Fame. Today, Planet Football bows at her feet.

In a country where support for women’s football is practically zero, what Marta has achieved, at the age of just 22, is all the more admirable. To get ahead in the game, she had to follow her instincts and take a gamble on the potential she always believed she had. Her efforts paid off. Today she is quite simply the best player in the world and has helped Brazil to become one of the strongest forces in the women’s game.

You could say that her professional career really took off in 2003. At the age of 17, the same age at which Pele collected his first World Cup winner’s medal back in 1958, Marta started to show the world what she could do. First, she helped Brazil win the gold medal at the Pan American Games in Santo Domingo. Then, thanks to her outstanding performance at the 2003 World Cup, she earned a move to Europe and a contract with Swedish club Umeå IK.

In 2004, she was elected the best player at the Under-19 World Cup. That same year, she was one of the main driving forces in Brazil’s progress to their first Olympic final in Athens. They lost out to the USA, but for a promising generation of youngsters, the silver medal was good as gold. That major leap forward helped Marta to establish herself among the best players in the world, and she finished a noteworthy third in the poll.

12 months later she found herself in contention again, and this time she finished second, as Germany’s Brigit Prinz was once again crowned world number one. However, her own coronation was getting closer. It came in 2006. On 18 December, still just 20 years of age, Marta lifted the FIFA award for the best player in the world and dedicated it to her mother Tereza.

Thanks to the persistence shown by this talented left footer and her teammates, the world understood what the Brazilian women’s team was capable of. In 2007, they won their second consecutive Pan American gold and their Number 10 finished the tournament with 12 goals and claimed the best player award. This time the success tasted especially good, as they had come on home soil. In the final, at Rio’s Maracanã stadium, more than 60,000 supporters turned up to watch the home team’s triumph.

The results prompted a tearful Marta to launch an impassioned defence of Brazilian women’s football. She let fly, calling on her countrymen and women to pay more attention to the women’s game and declaring that things could not continue as they had done in the past. She praised the standard of play in Brazil but asked: “How can I play in Brazil if there is no league? If we had the same infrastructure that we have abroad, I’d be back like a shot.”

And what she says is true. Two months after the Pan American Games, Marta and her teammates were proving their worth once again, putting on a great show at the World Cup in China, where they looked simply unstoppable. In the group stages they won three games out of three, without conceding a goal, beating New Zealand 5-0; hosts China 4-0 and recording a 1-0 victory over Denmark.

In the quarter-finals, Marta & Co needed all their determination to overcome Australia 3-2 and advance to the last four. There they faced the powerful Americans, who had beaten them at the last Olympics, but had been defeated in the recent Pan American Games final. Any Olympic ghosts were soundly laid to rest, as Brazil produced a comprehensive 4-0 victory, thanks in large part to a virtuoso display from Marta, who scored twice and produced some sensational flicks and feints. Brazil were in the World Cup final for the first time.

However, standing between them and the trophy were the World Cup holders. Even though Brazil were the only team in the tournament with a 100 percent record, Germany had yet to concede a single goal. The Germans won 2-0, and Brazil’s star player missed a penalty. As Marta said after the game, “it just wasn’t our day.” That didn’t stop her from receiving the Golden Ball trophy awarded to the best player of the tournament. She was once again confirmed as the best player in the world. And she also received the Golden Boot for finishing the tournament as top scorer with seven goals. It meant that Marta became Brazil’s top goalscorer at World Cups, with a total of 10, to put her three ahead of Sisi.

Talking honestly and eloquently after the final, Marta said that Brazil must not get used to coming second. And she guaranteed that she and her team-mates would make sure that didn’t happen. Before long they will be heading back to China for the 2008 Olympics and will be seeking to add a new chapter to their remarkable story. With players like Marta and her fellow battlers defending the national team colours, players who have green and yellow blood in their veins, Brazil will be more than capable of overcoming any obstacles in their path.