“SOMETIMES I ENDED UP LITERALLY FIGHTING BOYS TO GET THEIR RESPECT”
The best female footballer of all time is welling up, her voice quivering as she remembers the most treasured moment of her career.
Marta, the six-time FIFA World Player of the Year, is on the verge of tears not because she is the overall top scorer at men’s or women’s World Cup finals, nor because she has overtaken Pele in her tally for the Selecao. The 34-year-old Brazilian is rewinding to 2006, and cherishing the day when Dois Riachos – her hometown in western Alagoas with a population of just under 12,000 – gave her a hero’s welcome in the middle of the night as she showed off the first of her six coveted individual prizes during a record-breaking journey.
As she opens up to FourFourTwo, the Orlando Pride forward discusses her amazing battle to become the best female star in football history, plus the time Pele pranked her on the phone, teenage shock in snowy Sweden and working as a UN ambassador...
How did you fall in love with football?
I was born into a very humble family with two brothers and one sister. My parents broke up when I was a baby, so my grandmother played a huge role in my upbringing. Our family is big – there were always plenty of cousins around, and I wanted to play football with them. That’s how it all started. When I was seven, I
