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Marta Vieira da Silva, generally known as Marta, was born on February 19, 1986, in Dois Riachos in Brazil and is considered as one of the greatest footballers of all-time and possibly the best woman footballer to have graced the beautiful game.
More often than not the Brazilian is compared to Pele, which has earned her the nickname “Pelé de saias” (“Pelé with skirts”) with Pele himself agreeing with that comparison.
The 29-year old has literally won everything one can possibly win, except for the prestigious World Cup. She was named the FIFA Player of the Year for five straight years, starting from 2006.
She has scored a staggering 92 goals in her 95 appearances for the national team and also became the highest ever goal-scorer in Women’s World Cup history when she scored her 15th WC goal in the recently concluded tournament in Canada.
Marta, like most of the other Brazilian footballers, started playing the sport on the streets of the football-crazy nation. She even outperformed the boys who played with her.
Currently plying her trade in Sweden, she was spotted by Brazilian coach Helena Pacheco, who convinced the then 14-years old to relocate to Rio de Janerio and gave her a trial with Vasco da Gama women’s club.
She first donned the canary-yellow of Brazil when she was selected for the U-19 World Championship in 2002. However, her breakthrough moment came when she made it to the squad for the 2003 World Cup and scored three goals in the competition.
Then, as a 17-year old she moved to Sweden to play for Umeå IK where she bagged 111 goals in just 103 appearances. The accomplished playmaker led her country to silver medals in both the 2004 and the 2008 Olympics.
Martra scored another six goals in the 2007 World Cup, however her penalty miss in the final meant Brazil fell to Germany 2-0.
The number 10 then managed four goals in her third World Cup which was played in Germany. The Brazilian broke the previous record of 14 WC goals, held by Birgit Prinz, when she converted from the penalty spot in a 2-0 win for her team against South Korea in a group stage match.
Her astounding records speak for themselves and the frequency with which she scores is superlative and the biggest reason that she is compared to arguably the greatest goalscorer of all time and her compatriot, Pele.
She is currently playing for the Swedish side FC Rosengård and has already scored 10 goals in 16 appearances for them.
What has made her probably the best Women’s player of all time is her ability to try the unorthodox in an attempt to force the issue. Her goalscoring has always been phenomenal but it is the fact that she can pull a trick out of the bag just when the team needs it that makes her an all time great.
Her 5 Ballon d’Or titles show how dominant she has been in terms of performing at the highest level consistently. She has also finished in the top 3 for the award for 11 consecutive years, an achievement unparalleled.
As someone who rose from abject poverty to carve out a living for herself doing what she loves, Marta remains very connected to her roots. Though she is compared to Pele, for her goalscoring exploits, her game sometimes resembles Ronaldinho, for the flair that she brings to the game.
An interesting fact about her career that is not really known is that 6 of the 9 clubs she has played for are now defunct, mostly due to a lack of financial support.
It is very clear that Marta is a staunch advocate of taking women’s football to as many countries as possible, but the fact that monetary assistance isn’t really readily available has been a hindrance.
The fact that she has had to overcome adversity at almost every step of her career reflects clearly when she steps out on to the field, as she is as aggressive as one can get and is a cut-throat competitor.
Fighting to champion the need for women’s football in her own country, Marta has shown through her achievements that success and excellence is truly possible if you give it your all, irrespective of gender.
When she was at Santos, the women’s team was disbanded to raise money to allow the men’s team to keep Brazil’s best player, Neymar at the club by offering him a new contract. Not that it reflects badly on Neymar, but it shows what sort of mindset Marta has to be able to overcome setbacks such as those and keep moving.
Now 29, Marta will look to power her team to victory at the 2016 Rio Olympics before she turns her sights to that all-elusive Women’s World Cup title, in the hope that she will be able to get hands on the World Cup in what would possibly be her last chance at winning it.
World Cup or no World Cup, Marta has shown that she is the best player seen in the women’s game for a long time, and possibly all time.
