Brazil legend Marta, 38, is set to retire from international football after the 2024 Olympic Games this month, but after receiving a red card in the final group-stage game against Spain, it looked like her career would end on a low as she was banned for the quarterfinals and semifinals.
However, she will get a chance to end with a gold medal as Brazil beat Spain in the semifinal, ensuring she can play her final game against the USWNT on Saturday.
What legacy has she left on the women’s game? We spoke to those who know her best to tell the story of her incredible career.
Information from ESPN Brasil was used in this piece, which was first published on July 24 and has been updated.
The Beginning
1. Long before she became the best women’s soccer player in the world, Marta was seven years old, the only girl playing on a dirt field in Brazil. The games were played in a dry creek, the goals forged from three sticks to make both posts and a crossbar.
She had grown up in poverty, playing without shoes, then later stuffing newspaper into the bottom of her used boots to make them fit. Her single mother had worked long hours to provide for her and three siblings. But she would dribble and weave with the ball like it was tied to her foot.
“She was born to play futebol,” her childhood coach, Tota, tells ESPN.
Born to? Everyone says that now, but supposed to? Definitely not. There were always comments. “She can’t play, she’s a girl,” they often said. Some even asked her mother why she let her play, insisting: “She’s not normal.”
Her mother shook the questions off. As did her childhood coach, Tota. He got the same questions all the time, none more so than during a children’s tournament in the neighbouring town of Santana do Ipanema. The details are slightly lost to time now, but the crux is this: Marta arrived at the competition she had played in before, but this time it was a problem.
A coach from another team said his team wouldn’t play against her, with the organiser eventually removing her from the tournament. (The organiser later told Brazilian media he only did so to protect her, after another player had threatened to injure her when she had nutmegged him.) The following year, it was made a boys-only competition.
6. Marta’s stay at the Barbosa house would support her during a spell in her life when she was far from home.
“They gave her lifts to and from training because my Mum and Dad lived about 20 minutes outside of Umea,” Barbosa’s daughter, Josefin, tells ESPN. “So they were out all day just driving her back and forth and preparing food and washing her laundry. She was young, she’s never been doing that. She was a child.”
Marta was quickly seen as part of the family. “She became like their daughter,” Josefin adds. Every Easter, the Barbosa family would get together to play games; Marta, with her famous competitive spirit, joined in even if she was at a serious disadvantage. One of the games was simple: Each person had to cross-country ski up to a certain place, use a flame there to light a candle, then delicately bring it back without letting it go out. The first to return would be the winner.
Marta, who grew up in a place where the weather almost never drops below 20 degrees Celsius (69 degrees Fahrenheit), started putting on her skis. She’d never skied before, but that didn’t matter.
“We went to do all this stuff and she always wanted to win,” Josefin says. “That’s how she is. She had never skied before, but she wasn’t afraid.”
7.1. Marta became an established global superstar after just one year in Sweden. She scored a reported 22 goals in her first season — joint-top scorer in the Swedish top-flight and helped the side to win the 2004 UEFA Women’s Cup (the predecessor to the Women’s Champions League) with three goals in the two-legged final win [8-0 on aggregate] against Frankfurt. She maintained contact with Pacheco via email. One day, the exchange went like this:
Marta: “Helena, I think I’m going to be nominated for the FIFA World Player of the Year award in women’s football.”
Pacheco: “You’re going to be nominated, but you’re not going to win”
Marta: “But how can I not win, Helena?”
Pacheco: “Marta, you’ve been nominated, but the girl from the United States was the Olympic champion, she should be nominated. Then the second time round you’ll be the best in the world.”
Marta: “Are you saying this just to cheer me up?”
Pacheco: “No, I’m saying it because it’s true. You were the top scorer in Europe, but the girl was the Olympic champion, so she’ll win ahead of you. Next time you’ll win.”
Marta was third that year behind Germany’s Birgit Prinz and the USWNT’s Mia Hamm. The following year, she came second, again behind Prinz. But she won the award for the first time in 2006 before going on to win it five times in a row between 2006 and 2010, then again in 2018.
