July 4 – Brazilian legend Marta has been selected for her country for the Paris Olympics, the sixth time Brazil’s leading scorer will have played at the Summer games.
Marta said she would retire from international football this year, aged 38, but was not selected for the Brazil team that made it to the final of the W Gold Cup in California earlier this year.
In selecting her for the Olympic team, Brazil manager Arthur Elias described her as “the greatest athlete of all time”. It was an epithet that was similarly used in Brazil’s winning bid in June for the 2027 Women’s World Cup.
Marta currently plays her club football for Orlando Pride in the National Women’s Soccer League, having spent much of her club career in Sweden where she also has citizenship.
She has been named FIFA player of the year six times, five of them consecutively from 2006 through 2010, with the last one in 2018.
She has scored 118 goals for Brazil and with 17 goals, is the all-time leading goalscorer in World Cup, women’s or men’s. She was the first player to score at five different World Cups, a feat now matched by Christine Sinclair in 2019 and Cristiano Ronaldo in 2022.
Marta is also the first player to score at five consecutive Olympic Games.
She has two Olympic medals, winning silver at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. Both times Brazil lost to the United States.
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