Background and career
Marta Vieira da Silva (born 19 February 1986), is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a forward for the National Women's Soccer League club Orlando Pride and captains the Brazil women's national team. Regarded by many as the greatest female footballer of all time, she has been named FIFA World Player of the Year six times.
As of 2025, Marta is Brazil's all-time top scorer with 122 goals. She holds the record for most career goals in the Women's World Cup, with 17. She was the first footballer of any gender to score at five World Cups and at five consecutive Olympic Games. She was a member of the Brazilian national teams that won the silver medal at the 2004, 2008 and 2024 Summer Olympics. She won the Golden Ball award at the 2004 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship, and won both the Golden Ball and the Golden Boot awards at the 2007 Women's World Cup after leading Brazil to the final.
At the club level, Marta won the UEFA Women's Cup with the Swedish club Umeå IK in 2004, and won seven Swedish league championships during her time playing for various teams in the country. In 2014, she was a UEFA Women's Champions League runner-up with Tyresö FF. She won the Women's Professional Soccer championship in 2010 and 2011, and she helped the Orlando Pride win their first National Women's Soccer League championship in 2024.
Marta was an ambassador for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. In 2013, she appeared in the Sveriges Television documentary series The Other Sport. She helped carry the Olympic flag into the Maracanã Stadium during the opening ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics. In 2019, she was appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations as a Sustainable Development Goals advocate. In Brazil she is nicknamed 'Rainha' ('Queen').
