49 Fun Facts About Marta

In which position does Marta primarily play?

Forward is her listed position now, but Marta began as an attacking midfielder, and a 2007 profile still listed her as a midfielder.

Which award has Marta won six times, including five in a row from 2006 to 2010?

FIFA World Player of the Year went to Marta five times running from 2006, when at 20 she became the youngest woman to win it; a sixth world award followed in 2018, eight years after the fifth.

Marta's 17th World Cup goal in 2019 broke the overall record, men's or women's, held by which striker?

Miroslav Klose had held the overall record with 16 goals; Marta drew level with a penalty against Australia and passed him five days later with another against Italy.

Which English club beat Marta's side in the 2007 UEFA Women's Cup final?

Arsenal won 1-0 over two legs to become the first English club to lift the trophy, denying Marta a second European title three years after her first.

A Brazilian great gave Marta which nickname, likening her to himself?

'Pelé with skirts' had the blessing of the man himself: Pelé phoned Marta to congratulate her after her starring role at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio.

Marta's nickname in Brazil is 'Rainha'; what does it mean?

Queen is the meaning of Rainha, and Brazil's press calls her 'a Rainha do Futebol', the queen of football; no man has scored as many goals for the national team as she has.

At 14, Marta left Dois Riachos on a three-day bus journey to try out for a club in which city?

Rio de Janeiro lay three days away from her small home town in Alagoas, where she had learned the game by fighting for a place in the boys' street matches.

Which team knocked Marta's Brazil out of the 2012 Olympics in the quarter-finals?

Japan, World Cup winners the summer before, beat Brazil 2-0, so Marta left those Games without the medal she had won at each of the previous two.

How far did Brazil get at Marta's sixth World Cup, in 2023?

The group stage was as far as Brazil got: a goalless draw with Jamaica in the last game sent the Jamaicans through instead, and Marta, 37, went home without a goal at a World Cup for the first time.

With which club did Marta win four straight league titles from 2005 to 2008, two of them unbeaten?

Umeå IK signed her at 18 and went through the 2005 and 2006 league seasons without losing a game; she later added three more titles with two other clubs in the same league.

Which Brazil strike partner of Marta top-scored with 15 goals as their club won the 2009 Copa Libertadores Femenina?

Cristiane hit 15 goals in the tournament while Marta was named its best player; the two had been Brazil's front line since they were teenagers.

Which team beat Marta's Brazil 2-0 in the 2007 Women's World Cup final?

Germany won 2-0 in Shanghai and went through the whole tournament without conceding a goal; Marta, its top scorer, had a penalty saved midway through the second half that would have levelled the final.

Marta won the Golden Boot as top scorer at the 2007 World Cup and which award as its best player?

The Golden Ball completed a personal double after her seven goals, yet the tournament ended in tears: Brazil lost the final, and Marta had a penalty saved in it.

How did the Maracanã honour Marta in 2007, a first for any woman?

Her footprints were set in cement at the stadium, an honour until then given only to men, after she scored twice in a final watched by a crowd of 68,000.

In which city did Marta win her third Olympic silver medal, twenty years after her first?

Paris brought a third silver two decades after the first, each from a final lost to the same opponent; Marta came on as a substitute in it after sitting out two games through suspension.

In 2019 Marta became the first player to score at five World Cups; which men's star matched her in 2022?

Cristiano Ronaldo became the first man to do it with a penalty against Ghana in Qatar, three years after Marta had got there first with a penalty of her own against Australia.

Against which team did Marta score twice in 2021 to become the first player to score at five straight Olympics?

China were beaten 5-0 in Brazil's opening game, Marta scoring twice to stretch a run that began in 2004; Brazil still went out in the quarter-finals, on penalties.

Which Brazil teammate, then at her seventh World Cup, did Marta name as an ageing legend in her viral 2019 plea?

Formiga, 41 that summer, was one of the veterans Marta said would not be around for ever as she urged Brazilian girls to 'cry at the beginning so you can smile at the end'.

Which team eliminated Marta's Brazil from the 2019 World Cup in the round of 16, after extra time?

France, the hosts, won 2-1 in Le Havre with an extra-time goal from their captain, Amandine Henry; after the final whistle a tearful Marta turned to the cameras and urged Brazil's girls to carry the game on.

Which Spaniard, scorer of the 2023 World Cup final's only goal, did Marta accidentally kick in the head in 2024?

Olga Carmona was caught by Marta's high boot in first-half stoppage time of the last group game; the red card brought a two-match ban that kept Marta out until the final.

After retiring from international football following the 2024 Olympics, Marta returned in 2025 to help Brazil win which tournament?

Copa América Femenina 2025 turned on Marta at 39: in the final against Colombia she equalised in stoppage time with a long-range shot, scored again in extra time, and Brazil won on penalties.

Marta joined the inaugural Women's Professional Soccer season in 2009 with which club, and was named league MVP?

Los Angeles Sol finished top of the regular season with Marta as the league's leading scorer, but lost the final 1-0 and folded within months, which sent her into a dispersal draft.

Marta won her first WPS championship in 2010 with which Bay Area club, again as league MVP?

FC Gold Pride took Marta first in the dispersal draft and she repaid them with 19 goals in 24 games and a 4-0 win in the final; less than two months later the champions folded.

Marta's third WPS club in three years, with which she won the 2011 title on penalties, was which expansion team?

Western New York Flash won the 2011 final 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw, and Marta took a third straight Golden Boot; the league then cancelled its 2012 season, which sent her back to Europe.

Marta spent two WPS off-seasons on loan at which Brazilian club, winning the 2009 Copa Libertadores Femenina?

Santos signed her on three-month loans between her American seasons; in 2009 she scored in a 9-0 Libertadores final and twice in the Copa do Brasil final as the club won both.

Marta's salary at Tyresö FF from 2012 was said by the club's owners to be paid by whom?

External sponsors covered her wages, the owners said, but the money ran out: the club went bankrupt in June 2014, a month after playing in the Champions League final, and every player became a free agent.

Marta scored twice in the 2014 UEFA Women's Champions League final, but Tyresö lost 4–3 to which German club?

Wolfsburg trailed 2-0 at half-time and 3-2 after Marta's second goal, yet won 4-3 in Lisbon; she scored against them again a year later for another club and lost once more, on away goals.

Marta won her first NWSL title in 2024 when the Pride beat which team 1–0 in the championship game?

Washington Spirit lost 1-0 to a first-half goal in Kansas City, which gave Orlando a double with the NWSL Shield and their 38-year-old captain, Marta, the first NWSL title of her career.

What injury kept Marta out of the whole 2022 NWSL regular season?

An ACL tear in her left knee came in a Challenge Cup game in March 2022, weeks after she was named Orlando's captain; she returned in 2023 at the age of 37 and was a champion a year later.

Marta gained citizenship of which second country in March 2017?

Sweden granted her citizenship in March 2017 after years of club football there, a month before she left its league for Orlando; having already played for Brazil, she could not switch national teams.

In 2024 FIFA created an award named after Marta, given for what?

The most beautiful goal by a woman has had its own FIFA prize since 2024, when the Puskás Award was limited to men's goals; the first winner was Marta herself, for a goal for Brazil against Jamaica.

Marta was one of six ambassadors for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil alongside Ronaldo, Bebeto and which coach?

Mario Zagallo, like Ronaldo, Bebeto, Amarildo and Carlos Alberto Torres, had won the men's World Cup with Brazil, which left Marta as the only woman among the six and the only one who had never won a World Cup.

At the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympics, Marta helped do what?

Carry the Olympic flag into the Maracanã: Marta was one of eight Brazilians chosen, on the night the cauldron was lit by Vanderlei de Lima, the marathon runner attacked by a spectator while leading in 2004.

Which United Nations title has Marta held since 2018, after eight years with the UN Development Programme?

UN Women Goodwill Ambassador for women and girls in sport is her title; the agency's profile recalls a girl who played street football without shoes and was shunned by the boys she could outplay.

What is the name of the sportswear brand Marta launched in 2023?

Go Equal stands for gender equity in sport, and Marta gives all of her royalties from the label to football organisations that promote women into leadership roles.

Which team beat hosts Brazil 2-1 to the bronze medal at the 2016 Olympics, leaving Marta fourth?

Canada won the bronze-medal match 2-1 after Brazil had lost their semi-final on penalties, so the home Games ended without a medal for Marta.

Marta married which former club teammate in Florida in January 2026?

Carrie Lawrence, a defender, retired days after she and Marta won the 2024 NWSL title with Orlando; the couple had announced their engagement that August and married in Florida on 2 January 2026.

Marta scored both Brazil goals in a 2011 World Cup quarter-final lost on penalties to which team?

United States equalised in the 122nd minute, deep in stoppage time at the end of extra time, and won the shootout 5-3; Marta's two goals had left Brazil seconds from the semi-finals.

Marta became the Women's World Cup's all-time top scorer in 2015 with her 15th goal against which team?

South Korea were also the opponents when she scored her first World Cup goal, a penalty as a 17-year-old in 2003; the record-breaker twelve years later came from the spot as well.

In which city did an 18-year-old Marta win her first Olympic medal?

Athens saw Brazil take the 2004 final to extra time before losing 2-1 to a goal in the 112th minute; Marta had scored three times on the way there.

Whose extra-time goal beat Marta's Brazil in the 2004 Olympic final?

Abby Wambach struck in the 112th minute to settle the final 2-1 after Brazil had equalised to force extra time; it left Marta with the first of her three silver medals.

Marta started her professional career in 2000 at which Brazilian club, which closed its women's team two years later?

Vasco da Gama gave the 14-year-old her start, but its women's side was wound up after her second season and she moved on to Santa Cruz, a small club in Minas Gerais.

At which tournament did Marta make her Brazil debut, scoring six goals and winning the Silver Ball?

Her first senior international goal came at the 2003 Copa América, which Brazil won.

Which German club did Marta's side beat 8-0 on aggregate in the 2004 UEFA Women's Cup final?

Frankfurt lost 3-0 away and 5-0 at home; Marta, 18 and only months into her first season in Europe, scored three of the eight goals.

Whose record of 14 Women's World Cup goals did Marta equal in 2011 and break four years later?

Birgit Prinz had set the mark at 14 before retiring in 2011; Marta drew level that same summer and went past with a penalty at the next tournament.

Which coach, a two-time Olympic gold medallist with another nation, led Marta's Brazil from 2019 to 2023?

Pia Sundhage had been on the winning bench when Marta's Brazil lost the 2008 Olympic final; eleven years later she took charge of Brazil and kept Marta in her squads up to the 2023 World Cup.

Whose extra-time goal beat Marta's Brazil 1-0 in the 2008 Olympic final?

Carli Lloyd scored in the 96th minute in Beijing, which left Marta with a runners-up medal from a third major tournament in a row, after the 2004 Olympics and the 2007 World Cup.

Whose first-half goal won the 2024 NWSL Championship for Marta's Orlando Pride?

Barbra Banda, the Zambian striker who joined Orlando that season, scored in the 37th minute and was named the final's most valuable player; she and Marta had both scored in the quarter-final.

Which striker, later a two-time World Cup winner, was Marta's rookie team-mate at the 2011 WPS champions?

Alex Morgan, the first pick of the 2011 draft, spent her debut professional season alongside Marta as their expansion club won the title at the first attempt.