Marta (footballer)

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Marta
Personal information
Full name Marta Vieira da Silva
Height 1.62 m (5 ft 4 in)
Position(s) Forward
Team information
Current team
 Umeå IK
Number 60
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 30 September 2007 (UTC)
Olympic medal record
Representing  Brazil
Olympic Games - Women's Football
Silver medal – second place 2004 Athens Team Competition
Pan American Games - Women's Football
Gold medal – first place 2007 Rio de Janeiro Team Competition

Marta Vieira da Silva, or simply Marta (born on February 19, 1986 in Dois Riachos, Alagoas) is a Brazilian women's soccer player, who is considered the best player ever in women's Soccer. She plays as a midfielder for Sweden's Umeå IK, and was a member of the Brazilian National Team that won the silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics. She was also named the Golden Ball (MVP) at the 2004 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship (six goals in tournament), in which Brazil finished fourth. She is the 2006 FIFA Women's World Player of the Year. In the 2007 Women's World Cup, she won both the Golden Ball award as the best player and the Golden Boot award as the top scorer.

Umeå IK

Marta joined Umeå IK before the 2004 season. Umeå reached the final of the UEFA Cup, winning 8-0 against Frankfurt on aggregate. Marta scored three goals during the two-legged game. In the league, however, Umeå finished second, only beaten by a single point by Djurgården. Interestingly, Umeå amassed a total of 106 goals in the league, 32 more than the winning team. Marta scored 22 league goals. She also lost the cup final against Djurgården by 2-1, getting on the scoresheet.

Marta's second season with Umeå ended in glory as her 21 goals helped Umeå to a convincing league win, not losing a single game during the run. Once again, Djurgården won the cup final against Marta and her teammates by 3-1. Three weeks earlier, Umeå hammered the same team 7-0 in the league.

In 2006, Umeå once again won the league without losing, and Marta, as in 2005, became league top scorer with 21 goals. Umeå even won the UEFA Cup, cruising to a 11-1 aggregate win over Norwegian side Kolbotn FK, with Marta scoring a brace in both games. For the third time in a row, she was on the losing side when they were defeated 3-2 by Linköpings FC in the Swedish cup final.

So far during the 2007 season, Marta has scored 20 goals in 18 league matches and four rounds before end, Umeå are leading with 6 points. They are currently on a break because of the World Cup. Marta has finally added a national cup trophy to her merits after beating AIK 4-3 in an exciting game where she scored a hat-trick, the last one being the winning goal three minutes from time. In April, Marta failed to lift the UEFA Cup trophy for a third time after losing 1-0 on aggregate to Arsenal.

On October 1, several media sources reported that Marta is being linked with a transfer to Major League Soccer club Los Angeles Galaxy, which would make her the first woman to play professional in a men's league. As of yet, no official move has been announced, but several newspapers are reporting that AEG World Wide, who owns three Major League Soccer clubs, including LA Galaxy want to tie her up to one of their clubs. Marta herself is interested[1][2].

Marta's life and football prowess was depicted in the 2005 Swedish Television documentary "Marta - Pelés kusin" ("Marta, cousin of Pelé").

International career

On July 26, 2007, Marta and the Brazilian women's team beat the US U-20 National Team to win the Pan American Games at the famous Estádio do Maracanã in front of a crowd of 68,000. She was compared, by the Brazilian fans, with the great Brazilian player Pelé, being called "Pelé with skirts". Even the great Pelé agreed with the comparison. Marta has stated that Pelé called her to congratulate for the win and that she was extremely happy to hear that the greatest player ever followed her team's games.[1] Afterwards the imprint of her boots was recorded in cement at the stadium, the first woman to be so honoured, alongside Brazilian male stars' imprints.

Marta participated in the 2007 FIFA World Cup with Brazil. Brazil strolled through their group, winning all three games, with Marta scoring a brace in the first two matches. Brazil won 3-2 over Australia in the quarter-finals on September 23. Marta scored 2-0 from the penalty spot and is now equal with Norway's Ragnhild Guldbrandsen in the World cup top scorer award with 5 goals. On September 27, Marta scored two goals in the semi final of the World Cup as Brazil won 4-0 against the United States, the second goal scored in spectacular fashion. Marta finished the 2007 Women's World Cup as the top individual player, but was unable to win the championship losing to Germany in the final match 2-0 and having a penalty kick blocked by the German keeper which would have tied the match midway through the second half of play.[3]. She finished as top scorer and was named best player of the tournament.

Personal life

She has three siblings, José, Valdir and Angela. Her parents are Aldário and Tereza. Her favourite club besides Umeå IK is Corinthians, and her favourite players are Ronaldinho and Rivaldo. Apart from football, her favourite sport is tennis. She currently lives in Umeå.[4]

Honours

Club

Umeå IK (2004-present)

Brazil

Individual

References

  1. ^ http://pan2007.globo.com/PAN/Noticias/0,,MUL78950-3873,00.html

External links


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