Marta, the five-time FIFA World Player of the Year, will play her last meaningful game for Brazil on Saturday. The 38-year-old announced that she will retire from the national team at the end of 2024; it’s safe to assume that her exit from the club game won’t be too far behind.
Marta has always played soccer in a way that feels transcendent, dominating games with elegance and false ease that only come once in a blue moon. But female players have never been allowed to simply be transcendent. They must be firmly planted in this world, shouldering the systemic inequalities and discrimination that have always pressed down on the women’s game. Marta has carried this extra burden with candor and grace, being an esteemed leader for her teammates and pushing the game forward in Brazil and around the world, all while being an undeniable monster on the field.
So am I, ashamedly, a little conflicted about who to root for in the Olympic gold medal game between the U.S. and Brazil? Yes, yes I am.
I had the pleasure of watching the Brazilian maestro play in person at the 2015 World Cup, and seeing her do an entire Maradona with my own two eyes made me a lifelong fan. When she arrived in Orlando two years later, the Pride became the first NWSL team I adopted as my own. (I’ll admit that a certain other player I have a soft spot for contributed to that development as well). In art class in ninth grade we made linoleum prints, and the stencil I created was a photo of Marta above the text MÁGICO—Portuguese for magician. I changed the decorations in my childhood bedroom a lot over the years, but once I made those Marta homages, she was a constant presence on my wall.
Fortunately for us all, Marta has also been a constant presence in soccer for the last two decades. This longevity has given her an air of immortality, which has only been chipped away in recent years by a slight slowing on the field and her approaching retirement. Many of us hoped Brazil’s golden generation could pull out a win for their captain at the 2023 World Cup, but an outrageously competitive group and questionable tactics led to the Seleção’s earliest exit since 1995.
Marta followed up the World Cup exit by continuing to play well in the NWSL. She finished the 2023 season with four goals and four assists in 18 games, and through 13 games this year she has five goals and one assist, second only to Barba Banda in the Pride’s unbeaten season. She also fell right back into her role as an ambassador and mentor. After a loss to the Wave last season, she spoke to and posed for a photo with Melanie Barcenas, San Diego’s then-15-year-old upstart. But it’s not only teenagers who have grown up revering Marta. She’s been playing for so long that she’s been a childhood inspiration for players who are now making their name known to the world as the best of the best. Sophia Smith, for example, has said she idolized Marta growing up more than any other player. “When she gets the ball, you’re always kind of wondering, what’s she going to do this time? I want to be like that,” Smith told USA Today last June. And what does it mean to be a young player alongside the six-time FIFA World Player Of The Year? Messiah Bright, the Pride’s star rookie last year (who has since moved to Angel City FC) said of playing with the legend: “I wouldn't have imagined it in a million years.”
Marta has always seemed to understand her own impact on the women’s game, and she often leverages her influence to inspire its further growth. At the past two World Cups, Brazil had disappointing exits—the round of 16 in 2019, and the group stage in 2023—and Marta punctuated each with an impassioned speech about the sport’s progress and her place in it.
In 2019, she took a tough love approach to younger players. “There’s not going to be a Formiga forever. There’s not going to be a Marta forever. There’s not going to be a Cristiane,” she said. “The women’s game depends on you to survive. … Cry in the beginning so you can smile in the end.”
Her 2023 post-elimination sermon was even more emotional as she acknowledged the end of her World Cup career and pointed the world to the players who remain. “Most of them are girls who have a lot of talent, who have a huge path ahead of them. It’s just the beginning for them. I’m done here, but they’re still here,” she said. “I want people in Brazil to continue to have the same enthusiasm they had when the World Cup started, to continue to support, because things don’t happen overnight.” Marta would know—the first World Cup she played in didn’t even offer prize money.
Marta’s retirement will mark a sea change in women’s soccer. Her career began at a time when both domestic leagues and national teams struggled to get funding, respect, or even much notice. It will end at a time when the women’s game, though still marred by countless issues, is bigger than ever before. She is the face of a generation that did the hard labor needed to usher in the more professional atmosphere which today’s superstars enjoy. Thus, it will be a disappointment if her career ends without her winning a World Cup or Olympic tournament. When she drew a straight red card in the final group stage game against Spain, a feeling of dread set in. Marta’s last meaningful contribution to the national team couldn’t be a red card, could it?
Thankfully, Brazil put together two tremendous performances in the quarterfinal and semifinal without their captain. In the quarterfinal, they beat host nation France with a goal in the 82nd minute by Gabi Portilho. In the semifinal, they defied the odds yet again by trouncing Spain, 4-2.
Marta will be back for the gold medal game, where she’ll be given one last chance to claim a tournament victory. It will be hard, maybe even impossible, for me not to end up rooting for Marta to win what she so thoroughly deserves.
