Marta
Forward · Orlando Pride / Umea IK · Brazil
About Marta
Six-time FIFA World Player of the Year, Marta Vieira da Silva is widely regarded as the greatest women's footballer of all time — a player of unrivalled skill, improvisation, and relentless goal-scoring across three decades and six World Cups.
Marta's story
From Dois Riachos to the World
Marta Vieira da Silva was born on 19 February 1986 in Dois Riachos, a small town in the impoverished northeast of Brazil. She played barefoot on dirt pitches with boys, developing her extraordinary technical ability through necessity. She was scouted by Vasco da Gama at 14 and moved to Rio de Janeiro alone, launching a career that would make her Brazil's greatest ever footballer.
The European Peak
Marta moved to Sweden's Umea IK in 2004, dominating European women's football for six seasons. Her partnership with Hanna Ljungberg produced some of the finest club football the game had seen. She won six consecutive FIFA Women's World Player of the Year awards (2006–2010, 2018) and became the standard by which all other women's players were measured.
World Cup Brilliance
No player — male or female — has scored in six consecutive FIFA Women's World Cups. Marta scored at every tournament from 2003 through 2023. Her 17 World Cup goals is the all-time record. Perhaps her most iconic moment came in 2007 when she dribbled past four Swedish defenders to score a goal FIFA named the best in Women's World Cup history.
Orlando & Legacy
Marta joined Orlando Pride in 2017, becoming the face of the NWSL and women's football in the United States. At the 2019 World Cup she called on the next generation of Brazilian girls to take over — an emotional plea that resonated around the world. She married Swedish footballer Johan Alves in 2021.
Did you know?
- Marta has scored in six consecutive FIFA Women's World Cups (2003–2023) — a feat no player in the history of either the men's or women's game has matched.
- Her goal against Sweden at the 2007 World Cup — dribbling past four defenders before finishing — was voted the best goal in Women's World Cup history by FIFA.
- Marta married Swedish footballer Johan Alves in 2021; the couple live in Florida where she plays for Orlando Pride, and she has spoken about how Sweden feels like a second home after her years at Umea IK.
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